RomneyCare, 3 Years Later

This is important, because Mitt Romney will be a likely candidate in 2012 and he touts this as one of his most significant achievements as governor of Massachusetts.

Catching Up with RomneyCare

Democrats have seen the health-care future, and it looks a lot like Massachusetts. Everyone else should take a look too, given that another wheel has fallen off the liberal vision of "universal" coverage.

In a new study published in the journal Health Affairs, the left-leaning Urban Institute's Sharon Long and Paul Masi find that the Bay State is now facing a growing physician shortage and residents are enduring lengthening waiting times and other restrictions on care. "Paradoxically," the authors write, "the increases in health care use . . . were coupled with the indications that some adults were having more difficulty obtaining care."

But there's no paradox at all. Of course people will flood any "free" insurance program financed by taxpayers. RomneyCare (the plan was spearheaded in 2006 by then-GOP Governor Mitt Romney) entailed no effort to think through the likely consequences, such as the stresses on available medical resources now being witnessed. But then, every mainstream idea of "reform" seems to insist the solution is to extend "free" care to more people, even though health care that appears "free" to the recipient is exactly the source of our long-running troubles. As the Urban Institute authors dryly note: "Although major expansions in coverage can be achieved without addressing health care costs, cost pressures have the potential to undermine the gains." No kidding.

In Massachusetts, some 20% of surveyed adults seeking care were told doctors or clinics were not accepting new patients, or not accepting patients with their type of coverage. The rejection rates were concentrated among those enrolled in the "public plan" option -- no surprise, given that government coverage pays far lower rates to doctors, clinics and hospitals.

Massachusetts is a high-wage economy with a wealth of health-care providers. If it can't handle universal coverage without restricting patient choice, what state can? Yet the key features of the Massachusetts plan (a mandate requiring health insurance for every individual combined with a subsidized public option) are the emerging elements of ObamaCare. Look for exactly the same problems to be exported to the rest of the country.

-- Joseph Rago