uninsured persons in Massachusetts...

[PostmodernProphet]

Almost 100,000 Massachusetts Residents Fined For Failure To Get Health Insurance

Those who failed to secure health insurance policies, almost 100,000, forfeited their personal exemption worth $219 on their tax return after investigation proved they had the financial capacity to secure one. Those who could not afford it, about 62,000, were spared from the fine.
The fines of the 100,000 belligerent residents totaled $9.7 million, which was deposited in trust fund to partly defray the cost of implementing the law. If some residents still refuse to acquire a health policy, their monthly penalties would accrue to $912 by yearend.okay, so Massachusetts had a population of 6.4 million, or approximately 2.5% of the total US population.....



they identified 100,000 people who did not have health insurance but could afford it.....they identified 62,000 people who did not have health insurance and couldn't afford it.....162,000 people out of 6.4 million....I believe this means that out of a US population of 299 million we could calculate the possibility of somewhere around 7.9 million uninsured....

In Massachusetts 61.7% could afford it but chose not to, and 38.3% could not afford it.....



so, if we extend those numbers to the US population as a whole, that gives us around 4.8 million people who don't have health insurance but could afford it and approximately 3.1 million that could not afford it....

the question this raises in my mind is this....how does this compare with the 40 million people that the left insists are uninsured.....
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7011149978

[Drocket]

Massachusetts is a wealthy state. (http://www.unm.edu/~bber/econ/us-pci.htm)

[PostmodernProphet]

Massachusetts is a wealthy state. (http://www.unm.edu/%7Ebber/econ/us-pci.htm)

hard to say....it may have a high rank in per capita income but it may have an accompanying high rank in the cost of living....

a man living in Los Angeles may need to earn $24k a year just to pay rent.....a man living in Mississippi may be able to raise a family of 4 and own a home on $24k a year.....

[Alonzo]

Post, in Massachusetts they have provided discounted health insurance, so "afford to but didn't buy" isn't the same in Massachusetts as it is in other states. People who can afford it in Massachusetts may not be able to afford it in other states.

[Drocket]

To some degree that's true, but something like health insurance is a mostly fixed cost, regardless of state (some minor variation from state to state, but not much.) Massachusetts has a per capita income of $49k/year - if we say that health insurance is $1k/year, you only need to clear out 2% of the budget to be able to afford it. Mississippi's per capita income is $29k/year. To afford the same health insurance requires nearly double the percentage of your income.

That's with the per-capita income. Things are far worse when you look further down the income ranks. Someone in MA might be able to 'get buy' with 24k/year (which is, I think, around what their minimum wage is.) That would be about 4% of your income. It might be hard, but doable in many cases. In MI, the minimum wage/getting by level is probably about $12k. Even with a low cost of living, a $1k/year health insurance is probably not going to be possible, at all.

Edit: And what Alonzo said. I don't really know about any discounts that MA may offer on insurance, so...

[Alonzo]

To some degree that's true, but something like health insurance is a mostly fixed cost,

Drocket, when it was made mandatory massachusetts subsidized health insurance for those who lack the money.

Gov. Mitt Romney (R) supports the proposal, which would require all uninsured adults in the state to purchase some kind of insurance policy by July 1, 2007, or face a fine. Their choices would be expanded to include a range of new and inexpensive policies -- ranging from about $250 per month to nearly free -- from private insurers subsidized by the state.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/04/AR2006040401937.html

[PostmodernProphet]

if we say that health insurance is $1k/year,/boggle....you don't pay your own health insurance, do you.....

But plan costs will vary greatly depending on the plan selected, age and geographic location, ranging from just over $100 per month for plans for young adults with high copayments and deductibles to nearly $900 per month for comprehensive plans for older adults with low deductibles and copayments.

or else you're just young....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_2006_Health_Reform_Statute

[Alonzo]

Post, from the link you used:

Massachusetts health care reform law was enacted in 2006, and requires nearly every resident of Massachusetts to obtain or purchase health insurance coverage. Through the law, Massachusetts provides nearly free health care for residents earning less than the federal poverty line, and subsidized access to health care for those earning up to three times the poverty threshold.

[Drocket]

/boggle....you don't pay your own health insurance, do you...
or else you're just young....

Relatively young, yes (32). I was actually looking at insurance rather recently, the bottom-of-the-barrel, only-covers-massive-emergencies insurance was around the range of $1000/year. Obviously better plans would be, well, better, but I would consider that the minimum for what everyone should have, so that's the figure I used.

[apdst]

This is what you get when you let Liberals run the show.

[Drocket]

An 80% reduction in the number of uninsured people? (according to the numbers up there by PostmodernProphet.)

[apdst]

An 80% reduction in the number of uninsured people?

No, I was talking about punishing people who choose not to purchase health insurance.

This is right up there with forcing people to have health insurance in order to get a job.

[Mia]

Who decided who could afford it? What were the calculations used?

A discussion without this information is totally irrelevant.

[Mia]

The fines of the 100,000 belligerent residents totaled $9.7 million...

LOL, this article isn't biased at all.

[PostmodernProphet]

I was talking to my doctor about health care yesterday.....he said the trend the industry is seeing is that hospitals are "buying up" medical offices and smaller hospitals and forming groups with as many as 1000-2000 physicians.....these groups are then entering into contract with employers and Medicare, etc. saying we will provide the health services for this group of up to 10-15 million people for $X a year.....

he says that at the rate this is going on he gives it five to ten years and we will have universal health care which is market driven instead of government driven.....

[bishop]

i work in the pharmaceutical industry, directly with sales & marketing. i know for a fact, from speaking to a number of customers (doctors) that the federal government helps to increase costs. say that you run a long-term care clinic (i.e. a hospital for the elderly) and they get a complication while committed. the doctor has the option of choosing between two drugs - one that works very quickly or the other that is slower. the doctor also knows that if he can keep the patient in the bed for some 15 days, medicare gives a full payout - whereas if the bed is vacated too soon, he misses out on all that money.

take a wild guess what choice they make...