Glenn Beck took aim yesterday at the Massachusetts universal healthcare system, which liberals and many Democrats have touted for years as a model for the purported glories of socialized medicine.
Beck argues it is falling apart:
While only 2.6 percent of the state residents are uninsured — one sixth of the national average and, by far, the lowest rate in any state — the plan is far from the beacon of hope its proponents make it out to be. Government and industry officials agree the plan is unsustainable … [A report said] “The reform has not reduced health care costs in the state and has proven far costlier than expected.”
Beck noted that Massachusetts is now spending 42% more ($595 million) on health insurance than it did in 2006, and asked rhetorically how the state will pay for an estimated $1.3 billion in healthcare this year.
Sally Pipes of the Pacific Research Institute told Beck that ”of the people who are insured under Commonwealth Care — half of the newly insured are insured under Commonwealth Care — 20 percent of them are having a hard time getting a doctor.” Pipes, author of The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care: A Citizen’s Guide, added, “doctors don’t want to take patients where the reimbursement rates are so low.”
“And, you know, people — when they can’t find a doctor, they turn up at an emergency room,” Pipes said. “So, Massachusetts Care is very expensive.”
Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute told Beck that “waiting times to see a specialist in Boston, they’re already the worst in the country in 2004 and they have gotten worse since ‘Romney Care’ was enacted, named for Governor Mitt Romney, a Republican, who signed these reforms into law.”
Even with all of this additional spending that is busting the state budget, the state is now rationing care, Cannon said.
Beck then urged Pipes to “debunk [the notion] that people in Canada love the health care system.”
Pipes responded that she’s going to have to move back to her native Canada because President Obama‘s universal healthcare system “could be even worse” than Canada’s.
