Massachusetts Is Our Future

[the man who pays the state’s bills and knows about its financial condition] wrote an article in the March 25, 2010, Wall St. Journal in which he says,

“As state treasurer, I can speak with authority about the Massachusetts pilot program.  It has been a fiscal train wreck.  The universal insurance coverage we adopted in 2006 was projected to cost taxpayers $88 million a year.  However, since this program was adopted in 2006, our health-care costs have in total exceeded $4 billion. The cost of Massachusetts’ plan has blown a hole in the Commonwealth’s budget. . . . The only reason MassCare has survived is that we have been repeatedly bailed out by the federal government. But that raises the question: Who will bail America out if we implement a similar program?”

Read the red text in bold again and stop and think about the significance of those words.  The Massachusetts politicians who sold the state on MassCare said the program would cost taxpayers $88 million a year.  Four years later the actual cost is $4 billion.  The simpletons who created and sold MassCare were not mistaken by a mere 5%, 25% or even 100%.  They were off by 4,500%.  The annual cost is $3,972,000,000 more than the brain trust told the state it would cost.  Of course nobody should blame the legislative idiots who passed MassCare.  None of them had any experience in creating a state healthcare system so how could they possibly know important facts like how much would it cost and would it actually work.  Why would any intelligent person believe estimates given by somebody without any experience estimating the cost of a new healthcare system with no operating history.