Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Massachusetts Plan in New Jersey?

Proponents say it won't cost the state any new money

By Marc Kilmer

Categories: Individual Mandates, Massachusetts, New Jersey

It seems that New Jersey legislators are considering following in the footsteps of Massachusetts and requring all residents to have health insurance. Of course, the plan's authors think they can design such a plan that won't cost the government any new money:

But at a time when New Jersey is reeling from financial problems, and the country appears headed toward a recession, the plan would avoid adding to the budget and would instead try to redistribute federal and state dollars in a more efficient way.

The article says that the plan's authors want to enroll more people in the state's Medicaid program, somehow cut the costs of that program, and then set up a "self-financed" program to provide low-cost insurance for people in the state. How realistic is that?

In going down this road it is clear that these legislators have not been paying attention to the failure of the Massachusetts plan as Michael Cannon and Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute continue to point out.