We Had a Health Care Mandate in Massachusetts, Before Mitt Romney was Governor

By BOSMAN | December 3, 2010 - 10:30 AM | 2012 Election, Barack Obama, Conservatives, GOP, Health Care, Mitt Romney, Obamacare, RomneyCare 1 views

That’s right, there was a health care mandate in Massachusetts, before Mitt Romney became governor.

Think about it. Before Mitt Romney passed the Massachusetts Health Care bill, just HOW do you suppose the voluntarily uninsured freeloaders received health care and WHO do you think paid for it?

Well, back in 1986, President Ronald Reagan and the GOP passed a national health care bill that provided free emergency room care for everybody in every state , citizen or not, insured or not.

Now we know the HOW. Walk into any emergency room in any state and you receive free treatment.

Now we get to the WHO had been paying for this? I’m sure most already know the answer, YOU and I! Higher taxes and higher hospital costs resulted in the cost of higher insurance premiums. Try asking the tax man and your insurance company to subtract the monies that go towards covering freeloaders from your tax and insurance bills. Tell them you’d rather not pay for that. See what happens. I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for a response to your liking.

When Mitt Romney became Governor, he saw this, like most tax payers saw this, as unfair and unjust.

So you see, the MA Health Care mandate replaced one that was very unfair and unjust. The pre-MA Health Care mandate forced responsible tax payers to pay for the treatment of the voluntarily uninsured freeloaders. the MA Health Care mandate ended that practice.

The current Massachusetts Health Care mandate ONLY AFFECTS THE FREELOADERS. It doesn’t affect responsible tax payers who willingly purchase insurance for themselves and their families.

Guess what? The way I figure it, most of the other states are living under the OLD mandate because of the bill passed during Reagan’s administration. We responsible tax payers in Massachusetts, aren’t affected by any health care mandates any more.

Yes sir, that MA Health Care mandate is one of the few things left in PatrickCare that I still like.

(H/T Illinois Guy from RIGHT SPEAK and ROS)

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Tagged 2012 Election, Barack Obama, GOP, Health Care, MA Heath Care, mandates, Mitt Romney, obamacare, RomneyCare. Bookmark the permalink.

7 Responses to We Had a Health Care Mandate in Massachusetts, Before Mitt Romney was Governor

James Taylor says:

December 3, 2010 at 11:22 AM

VERY well written! This argument is much easier to present in a 10 second sound-clip than any other argument I’ve seen so far.
Steven Rosenberg says:

December 3, 2010 at 11:48 AM

BOSMAN! E X A C T L Y!! Actually, every state has a manadate: the mandate is: I, Taxpayer, am required to pay income taxes, and other taxes to pay for heathcare for those who can afford insurance, but chose not to get it, aka FREERIDERS.
Jayde Wyatt says:

December 3, 2010 at 1:01 PM

The health care reform bill that President Ronald Reagan passed in 1986 is known as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act or EMTALA. There is a plethora of information available online on EMTALA, including amendments which have been made to the original bill. Here are just a few sources:
https://www.cms.gov/EMTALA/

https://www.cms.gov/EMTALA/

http://www.aaem.org/emtala/

http://www.emtala.com/faq.htm

When President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) of 1985, it included the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) legislation. Ostensibly, it was supposed to address the problem of “patient dumping” by hospital emergency departments.

Violation of EMTALA could result in fines of up to $50,000 per violation to both the hospital and the physician and loss of Medicare reimbursement. EMTALA provided a classic lesson of what happens when a business activity, which provides a product or service at a price, is compelled by government to give its product away free. When it happens, everyone loses. Both the producer and the buyer lose to those who “take,” protected by the power of the federal government.

Since 1986, EMTALA has grown and spread, unstoppable, like a plague pandemic. Because of increased “regulatory guidance” and judicial action, EMTALA mandates now cover virtually every area of a hospital and its satellites. It was not long before it began strangling the health care system and our medical providers.

The EMTALA grew to mean that anyone who enters with an ‘emergency,’ now defined as including: cough, headache, hangnail, cardiac arrest, herniated lumbar disc, drug addiction, alcohol overdose, gunshot wound, automobile trauma, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive infection, mental problem, or personality disorder, must be treated. Any patient coming to a hospital requesting ‘emergency’ care must be screened and treated until ready for discharge, or stabilized for transfer – whether or not insured, ‘documented,’ or able to pay. A woman in labor must remain to deliver her child.

The impact of EMTALA on medical care in America was dramatic. Between 1993 and 2003, 60 California hospitals closed because over half the cost of services they provided could not be collected. Three years later, another 24 California hospitals verge on closure for the same reason. In Arizona, 38 medical centers reported losses of $153 million because of foreign nationals who had to be treated free under EMTALA. Now, three years later, many of those hospitals have closed or further reduced services.

Ambulances from Mexico came to American hospitals with indigents because the drivers know that EMTALA requires the hospital accept patients who show up on the doorstep. Within a decade we saw reduced availability of medical care because of the burdens imposed by EMTALA and immigrants on health care systems. In smaller towns, such as Bisbee, Arizona, they were forced to reduce their operating expenses to pay for the free medical care they were compelled to provide. They fired 35 of their 130 employees and eliminated services, such as a maternity ward, to continue to meet the federal dictate to provide free care to those who cannot pay for it.

In Tucson, which provides the only trauma center near the border, the hospital there wrote off $12 million for unreimbursed medical care year after year. Four hospitals closed in the San Diego area, (Calexico Hospital, Harbor View Medical Center, Kaiser El Cajon and Scripps Memorial Hospital East County), making Southern California the region with the greatest number of closures, at 15 hospitals, or 65 percent, of closures largely due to losses because of unreimbursable medical costs provided to illegal immigrants.

Under EMTALA, the choice is either treating the indigent for whatever reason they demand care, or getting slammed hard with Federal fines and lawsuits.

Read more here.
Jared A. says:

December 3, 2010 at 7:04 PM

@Jayde Wyatt
Thanks for the additional information Jayde!!
Dave P says:

December 4, 2010 at 1:47 AM

Great article Bosman. I don’t think most people (conservatives included) understand the implications of hospitals being required to give emergency treatment. With MassCare, Mitt was tackling that problem. Given that EMTALA is Federal law and very unlikely to be removed, Mitt deserves a great deal of credit for coming up with a conservative way to deal with his state’s issue.
BOSMAN says:

December 4, 2010 at 8:26 AM

@James Taylor

@Steven Rosenberg

@Dave P

Thanks guys.

@Jayde Wyatt

Thanks Jayde for taking the time to place that extra information here.
Jared A. says:

December 13, 2010 at 9:54 PM

Couldn’t we call this law….ReaganCare? ;)