Supreme Court Upholds Health Care Mandate

[NC_Skins]

Originally Posted by firstdown

This plan has been tried by Mass. and they pay the highest premium IN THE COUNTRY for health ins. This is not new its just a bad plan.

They are also one of the states with the highest cost of living. Your point?

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Let's delve further into your claim about the health insurance and see what we can find. Oooo...lookie here. I want you to read the whole article so that why you won't be propagating misleading info.

Does Massachusetts Have the Nation’s Highest Health Insurance Premiums? It Depends. - Health Stew - Boston.com

Some things help to explain the difference. Massachusetts health insurance tends to include lower deductibles and other kinds of cost sharing which are much higher in most other states, a difference that inflates MA premiums as compared with those in other states. Massachusetts has the highest proportion of physicians, nurses and many other health professional categories than all other states. And our costs have always been the highest, not just since the Massachusetts health reform law passed in 2006. But still, guilty as charged.

There are other key differences, and the most important one is income. Massachusetts had the 4th highest median household income among the 50 states in 2010 (after Maryland, New Jersey, and Connecticut). That accounts for a big part of the difference. The raw (unadjusted) premiums shown above don't take into account ability to pay. For example, assume Ms. M lives in Massachusetts and has $100 in income and health insurance premiums costing $20. Then assume Mr. A lives in Arkansas, has income of $50, and health insurance premiums costing $15. Even though Mr. A pays less, he is paying 30% of his income and Ms. M is paying 20% of hers. Who is worse off? I think Mr. A from Arkansas.

Checkmate.