Why federalism may kill universal health care ( just can it do it in time?)

For those of you who did not know, Massachusetts has recently taken its stab at a plan for universal health care( which by the way, was started by now Republican Presidential candidate, Mitt Romney). The plan forces everyone to have health care or face a penalty, and many can purchase a subsidized health care plan if they so choose. This is intended to help the many poor members of the state who did not have health care already.

Sounds Peachy right?

The problem always goes back to one thing, cost.
The Article explains that the universal health care plan is supposed to bring down prices. The problem comes in with simple economics. The government health insurance companies are supposed to provide health insurance whether or not the person pays, even though were assuming they will pay. Rather than drop them like a private company would, the public sector( tax payers) will just have to pick up the slack, increasing the cost of premiums.

Also, the state creates a subsidized market place which will supposedly fight with insurers and health care providers to bring down the cost. The problem here is that this "bargaining" can only happen with the subsidized health care. The private health care company can do basically whatever it wants ( which by the way is follow the market as it should). So, since the government sponsored health care plans have to compete with the rest of the industry, it is expected that keeping prices down will not be as easy as all that.

While the plan needs health care prices to go up only 5%, it is estimated to go up around 10-12%, making the plan cost more, either to the citizen, or the the tax payer. Even Massachusetts's liberals do not like paying taxes that are to high.

If the effects of this health care plan happen sooner than later, it could prove that government mandated health care wont work as smoothly as democrats would like.

So what does this mean for the rest of the country? Hillary and Edward's plan are in sync with Governor Romney's own plan for health care ( the only difference is Romney does not want it for the country, or else his poll numbers shoot way down). If Republicans can tell Americans of the effects Massachusetts's plan is going to have on the state, and then explain the effect it would have on the country, universal health care may not happen.

The wonderful thing about federalism is it allows all fifty states to experiment with different things. We have the luxury of letting one state fail or succeed before we make our entire nation follow the same plan. Hopefully we can take advantage of federalism one more time, and save our health care system from disaster.