Still looking for the Connector Board’s minutes from the Feb. 14, 2008 meeting.

Does anyone know how to find these? Does amyone know why they were not posted on line witin a day or two, as was the previous custom?

I can’t answer Beth’s question, but Health Care For All’s unofficial summary of the meeting is posted here: http://blog.hcfama.org/?p=1448

Even before these proposed premium and copay increases were being discussed the MA plan was a sham and was hurting people, as it still continues to do. The political backlash is beginning and it will be huge.

“The cruelest aspect of the [MA] plan, and a testament to its unworkability for the working class, was left for last. If you don’t comply, you’re fined. What honest person would have thought that treating hard-working individuals like your average criminal was the ultimate method of securing health insurance for the working poor?”
(full article below)

Can it really be that hordes of well-intentioned intelligent people in MA and the nation still refuse to see this truth? THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES! From before the law was even passed it was obvious that it was largely crafted by the insurance industry, large hospital chains, and the Heritage Foundation (Romney thanked Heritage in his press release trumpeting the law), for god’s sake. This sham reform has made it this far because insider “advocacy groups” went along with it (for very sorry reasons, $$ and wanting “a win”, to name two). It is uncomfortable to have to say these things but the truth is more important than comfort. Please read below; I couldn’t find a link to the article but because it tells the truth so well it must be aired in full:

FRAUD IN THE GUISE OF HEALTH REFORM

By Joseph T. Gorman, February 2008

Joseph T. Gorman is an attorney in Greenfield MA. This column first appeared in the Greenfield Recorder.

One of the biggest cases of health insurance fraud is going unpunished. The regulatory authorities are aware of it but in a malign twist of political opportunism, actually promote it. Meanwhile, the perpetrators are reaping millions in profits at the expense of powerless policyholders, who are forced to impoverish themselves by paying high monthly premiums that purchase only the illusion of coverage, with deductibles and co-payments that will send you into cardiac arrest.

It’s called the Connector plan, alias the Commonwealth Care plan, alias the Health Care Stick Up, and if you’re an uninsured middle-income resident of Massachusetts, you’re
about to be its victim. Passed in the waning days of the Romney administration, and no doubt intended to give a boost to our former governor’s unsuccessful presidential
campaign, the plan germinated in the egalitarian notion that health care should not be a commodity available only to those who can afford it. It seemed like that humane spirit
that pervades our national Constitution and says we are all entitled to certain human rights had finally taken hold on Beacon Hill. It was a wonderful thought and gave hope to
the middle class that affordable health care would finally be within reach.

But then Romney, the corporate financier and Olympic money manager, compared health care to car insurance. If we require people to purchase car insurance, he said, then we can require them to purchase health insurance. In a grotesque lack of empathy for those struggling to work and survive, Romney saw the core of the problem in the simplest of terms: a stubborn refusal by the middle class to purchase health insurance, which he was sure it could afford.

The answer was a mandate, sign up or be fined. Our representatives bought into it and patted themselves on the back for being the first state in the union to pass universal health care. They’d get to the details later.

The plan was in trouble from the start. The Connector, which is the board that oversees the plan, was forced to admit that its July 1, 2007, deadline for implementation was too optimistic. So it extended the deadline to Dec. 31, in part to accommodate those tens of thousands of supposedly recalcitrant candidates who hadn’t yet signed up.

The real difficulty was the refusal of the insurance companies to play ball. The plan promised that anyone who earned less than three times the federal poverty level would
receive either free insurance, or a subsidy toward the monthly premiums on Connector-sponsored policies. Those who earned more would be forced to purchase insurance on
the open market from the usual private insurers, and pay the premiums themselves – 100 percent. They would, however, have a choice of low-cost plans certified by the
Connector as being “affordable.” To follow through on that promise, though, the Connector needed and expected the cooperation of the insurance industry.

So far, so good.

Good that is, until you look at the dry-as-dust details. When you consider that three times the federal poverty level for an individual is $30,636, then throw in the cost of living in an era of skyrocketing heating oil, gasoline and food prices, and finally consider that the average middle-class Joe doesn’t have a stockbroker on speed-dial, you realize the enormity of the hoax that the Connector is delivering affordable insurance.

To determine if you qualify for a subsidy, look at your income and compare it to the guideline figure used by the Connector. But make sure you use your total income figure,
the one before taking any deductions for luxuries like IRA contributions, health savings accounts, Social Security deductions for the self-employed or alimony payments. For
you masochists who slog through your federal 1040 every year, it’s line 22 not line 37, despite what the Connector may say on its Web site. The end result is that you’re
charged with having income you don’t actually have available to pay a premium. For those of you who can read between the lines, say goodbye to your retirement contributions.

Lest you be accused of quibbling, or don’t have the extra cash to hire a lawyer to argue about whether you qualify for a subsidy, you can still purchase a Connector-certified
“affordable” plan. Last fall, Blue Cross/Blue Shield offered the Connector-approved Blue Care Elect plan with a $5,000 – yes, $5,000 – deductible, and a 20 percent co-insurance (read co-payment) provision. The premium was about $350 a month. Today, you might try for their $3,000 – yes, $3,000 – deductible version. When you look at the fine print, add up the deductibles, the monthly premiums and your co-payments, you realize you’ve become your own self-insurer for everything except a combination heart and lung transplant. But you’re still required to pay the “official” insurer for the dubious privilege of having the Connector’s seal of approval.

The cruelest aspect of the plan, and a testament to its unworkability for the working class, was left for last. If you don’t comply, you’re fined. What honest person would have thought that treating hard-working individuals like your average criminal was the ultimate method of securing health insurance for the working poor?

The real revolution in health care reform might only come on that fanciful day, when our state legislators are compelled to purchase their own health insurance in the private
market and suffer through the maze of premium schedules, deductibles, co-pays and prior approvals that bedevil and bleed the rest of us.

###

Joseph T. Gorman is an attorney in Greenfield. This column first appeared in the Greenfield Recorder.

To learn about real reform and a plan that puts people before corporate profits visit http://www.MassCare.org/about for state level legislation and http://www.HealthCare-Now for national work and links to other state efforts. Obama gets it on the harm of the individual mandate; why can’t Deval Patrick?

I have a question that needs to be answered.Where do the citizens that get ill go?If a person has no money or medical insurance what do they do if they need medical care.What we have is the wealthy are the only ones who can get care.Now the state doesn’t want the poor to get care either,I am very ashamed it has come to this.