Conservatively Speaking
State Senator Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) represents parts of four counties: Milwaukee, Waukesha, Racine, and Walworth. Her Senate District 28 includes New Berlin, Franklin, Greendale, Hales Corners, Muskego, Waterford, Big Bend and parts of Greenfield, East Troy, and Mukwonago. Senator Lazich has been in the Legislature for more than a decade. She considers herself a tireless crusader for lower taxes, reduced spending and smaller government.
More evidence government health care failing in Massachusetts
By Mary Lazich
Saturday, Dec 29 2007, 09:00 AM
As state Senate Democrats pledge to resurrect their failed proposal to enact government health care in Wisconsin, we need only look to Massachusetts to learn valuable lessons about this flawed idea.
Jacob Goldstein writes in the Wall Street Journal that, “Massachusetts’s universal health-care plan is turning out to be more expensive than predicted. Now the state is looking at cutting payments to docs and hospitals next year to make ends meet.”
Goldstein points out that in Massachusetts, everyone is required to purchase health insurance. A plan containing subsidies to the poor has been, not surprisingly, more popular than predicted, so popular that the costs are now 20 per cent higher than Massachusetts budgeted. The Boston Globe reports the price tag for government health care in Massachusetts could be as high as $619 million for the current fiscal year, $147 million over budget.
Because the cost is so high, a board that oversees the health plans has given its approval to cuts of three to five percent in reimbursements to health-care providers caring for those in the subsidized plan. The board has yet to decide whether it should raise co-pays and other out-of-pocket costs for those with income above the poverty level. The Boston Globe reports doctor visits, prescription drugs and hospital care cost much less for those with subsidized insurance than for those that have private insurance.
Hillary Clinton and John Edwards want such a plan for the entire country. Senate Democrats in Wisconsin want such a plan for our state that would impose the largest tax increase in the history of the United States.
The end result would be higher taxes, higher premiums, and health care rationing.
No thank you.
