MASSACHUSETTS STRUGGLES

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has been boasting that his state's health reform initiative has reduced the number of uninsured by half, with nearly 300,000 more people added to the health insurance rolls. What he doesn't say is that four out of five of them are relying on taxpayer subsidies:

-- Only 63,000 -- or about one in five -- have purchased private insurance, and the majority of them pay no premiums - the rest pay tokens.

Meanwhile, the costs:

• Massachusetts now estimates that its spending on the new program for the uninsured may exceed its budget by nearly $150 million.
• Individuals who don't get insurance this year -- or don't get an exemption -- will face a fine of $912, four times last year's penalty and scheduled to increase each year.
• The state "negotiated" with the health insurers participating in the Commonwealth Connector to keep premium increases to about 5 percent this year. [i.e., price controls]

But the insurers said in order to keep their prices down, they warned they have to increase copayments and/or deductibles and/or cut benefits; many newly-insured say they have trouble finding primary care physicians who will see them.

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