[DOWNLOAD] "Define "Affordable" (The Massachusetts Health Care Reform) (Essay)" by The Hastings Center Report ~ eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Define "Affordable" (The Massachusetts Health Care Reform) (Essay)
- Author : The Hastings Center Report
- Release Date : January 01, 2006
- Genre: Life Sciences,Books,Science & Nature,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 158 KB
Description
One of our sons owns a T-shirt with a typically adolescent inscription: "Define 'Girlfriend'." It rarely fails to generate a few wry smiles from passersby. We can imagine a similar garment, "Define 'Affordable'," selling well in Massachusetts, especially among bartenders in Boston, self-employed consultants, and small-town shop clerks as they confront the Massachusetts mandate to purchase health insurance so long as affordable, adequate insurance is available. Massachusetts should be commended for passing legislation that aims to achieve near-universal access to health care for its residents. It's a striking and difficult political accomplishment. Suggesting any remedy for the broken U.S. health "system" invariably exposes politicians to criticism. Employer mandate? Anti-business. Government-run program? Too many taxes, too much bureaucracy (as if health insurers lack it). Individual mandate? Undermines liberty, unfair to the little guy. Unable to decide the best way to reform the system, our elected representatives decide not to decide, and we live with an unjust, inefficient, and arguably unsustainable hodgepodge. Underlying these criticisms lie important questions about justice--and particularly about who benefits and who bears the burdens. The Massachusetts act leaves much to be settled later. It requires individuals to purchase health insurance if an "affordable" plan is available, but details about what counts as affordable, what state subsidies will be provided, and what counts as adequate insurance (termed "creditable coverage" in the act) are the domain of the Connector board created by the act.