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Massachusetts universal health
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July, 2008 Issue
Recently I was asked to sit down with three other Massachusetts brokers to have an interview with the Employee Benefit Adviser, The topic was the Universal Health initiative in Massachusetts and what have been our experiences.
The first thing that I recalled was my skepticism when the Commonwealth of Massachusetts announced that they would create an agency called the Connector Authority that was going to be able to provide great health plans with low co-payments at premiums much less then were available now. In turn all of the uninsured would be able to get health insurance through the Connector Authority with these great premiums. Evidently they were going to somehow cut the waste in the current system and pass the savings along?
Flash forward to today. The Connector Authority merely repackages the plans that are currently available in the marketplace at the very same rates, but at a lower commission to greedy brokers like myself. As far as I can tell is that the only benefit that the Connector Authority provides is that they are able to sell multiple carriers to a single group; for example, I could have a group of five employees have health insurance with five different carriers through the Connector Authority.
In addition there would be a plan set-up for those who fell under the 300% of the Federal Income poverty line called Commonwealthcare. Eligible subscribers are able to buy private healthcare plans at a subsidized premium. The problem, however, is that there is no asset test. As a result I have seen many cash businesses drop their own health plan to enroll with Commonwealthcare, since they were income eligible.
Universal healthcare was suppose to help control costs, bit I have not seen this happening. Instead I have seen another bureaucracy created that sells products no different then what is available through any other broker and the creation of subsidized plan that has seen people, who were paying for their health insurance, have their health insurance paid for. In the end, I just do not see how any of these efforts have helped control the cost of health insurance in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
