ROMNEYCARE: SOUNDS INTERESTING

"Governor Mitt Romney today proposed a sweeping expansion of private health coverage for the state's 460,000 uninsured people, and extended a hand to Democrats in the Legislature to pass a healthcare program next year.

In an article published in the Globe's opinion pages, Romney said he wants to change insurance laws to encourage insurers to offer stripped down health plans to small businesses and individuals. He would also provide "aggressively managed treatment" to send the working poor to clinics and hospitals for healthcare, redouble efforts to steer eligible people into Medicaid, and target Medicaid fraud.

Romney argued that his "Commonwealth Care" plan can "lead to every citizen in Massachusetts having health coverage." The governor insisted his proposal would not require a tax increase, or force employers to provide coverage to their workers, or make the state responsible for insuring everyone.

"Next year I am committed to working with the Legislature to pass a comprehensive, market-based reform program for healthcare," Romney wrote. "It will not require new taxes. What it will do is restrain the growth in healthcare costs and change how we provide healthcare for those who receive it at taxpayer expense."

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BUT MAYBE NOT

Making it more expensive to hire people is really dumb -- unless you WANT to create high unemployment

Massachusetts: Healthcare plan targets businesses: "Governor Mitt Romney said yesterday that he envisions a range of penalties for businesses that fail to provide health insurance, such as forcing them to pay a higher minimum wage, banning them from doing business with state agencies, or slapping a decal on their window to publicize their refusal. The Republican governor, disclosing details of his new healthcare proposal for the first time, said a system of 'carrots and sticks' would persuade businesses that don't provide health insurance to their workers to do so. Most of the employers he is targeting are small businesses with fewer than 50 workers. 'It could actually be a lot cheaper for businesses to provide insurance than to have to conform to the higher minimum wage for those that don't provide insurance,' Romney told reporters in a briefing in his State House office."

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL hospitals and health insurance schemes should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the very poor and minimal regulation.

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