Funding THE PLAN

NYTimes has a great article called, Health Care Expansions Hit Roadblocks, describing the latest major roadblock as cost control for a universal plan. I always thought this was THE greatest roadblock. As the California, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania plans mature, its slowly becoming clear that unions, insurance companies, politicians all pale in comparison to cost when it comes to providing health insurance for all. The article's flow is choppy, so I chopped it up to make sense out of it. Excerpts are below.

"The downside, and one noted by states with widening budget gaps, is that the program is expected to exceed its first-year budget by at least $150 million. And state officials are struggling to prevent double-digit premium increases next year."

"And though the rate of growth has slowed, the cost of employer-sponsored premiums still rose by 6.1 percent in 2007, more than double the inflation rate, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation."

"[The Plan] would raise money to subsidize policies for low-income residents through what Mr. Schwarzenegger calls shared responsibility — a tax on hospital revenues, a hefty increase in tobacco taxes and assessments on employers who do not contribute to their workers’ health care."

"Illinois’ Democratic governor, Rod R. Blagojevich, got nowhere with his proposals to pay for universal access to insurance by taxing gross business receipts and assessing employers who do not offer coverage to their employees."

“It remains incredibly difficult for states by themselves to get all the uninsured covered,” said Robert Blendon, a Harvard professor of health policy and political analysis. “There just is not a consensus on who should pay.”