Obama against requiring health insurance like Massachusetts

By M&C US News Nov 25, 2007, 16:40 GMT

Democratic Presidential hopeful and Illinois Senator Barack Obama, right, makes a point directed towards New York Senator Hillary Clinton, left, during the CNN Democratic Presidential debate at UNLV in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, 15 November 2007. EPA/ANDREW GOMBERT

Stumping in Iowa, Barack Obama said health care insurance should not become a government mandate, referencing plans proposed by John Edwards and Hillary Clinton.

Obama said that mandating health care coverage would be a wrong step. The Des Moines register reported Obama told a crowd of about 350 people at Thomas Jefferson High School that his own plan would decrease costs, on average, by about $2,500 per family, making health care affordable for all without placing demands.

"Their (Edwards and Clinton) essential argument is the only way to get everybody covered is if the government forces you to buy health insurance. If you don't buy it, then you'll be penalized in some way," said Obama, a U.S. senator from Illinois. "What I have said repeatedly is that the reason people don't have health insurance isn't because they don't want it, it's because they can't afford it."

Critics of Obama's health care plan say it is not truly a universal plan because it mandates coverage only for children.

Government officials estimate that 47 million Americans are uninsured.

Clinton on Saturday called for all her Democratic opponents to come up with a plan for universal health care "that covers everybody."

"The key to my plan is getting everybody covered because, you know, I've been down this road before. I know if you don't try to cover everybody, all the special interests are going to nibble you to death."

She said that once one group is left out of coverage, special interest groups will demand that another group be left out.

Clinton said it's time to "join the rest of the rich, industrialized world" and offer good health care for all.

Obama's plan would require limiting the amount of profit that health care businesses could make and prosecuting companies that monopolize the insurance industry. The result, he has said, would be health coverage for millions of uninsured Americans and an average premium reduction of $2,500 a year for families that already have coverage.

Obama said Saturday that his plan provides a framework for getting closer to universal coverage.

"If we see there are people who are still not covered when we make it affordable, then we will figure out how to make sure that everybody's got coverage. Period. You can count on that," Obama said. "But what I'm not going to do is pretend that by making everybody buy insurance that somehow they can afford it."

A year after Massachusetts became the only state to require that individuals have health coverage, Bay state residents face deadlines to sign up or lose their personal tax exemption, worth $219 on next year’s state income tax returns.

More than 200,000 previously uninsured residents have enrolled, but state officials estimate that at least that number, and perhaps twice as many, have not.

Those managing the enrollment effort say it has exceeded expectations. In particular, state-subsidized insurance packages offered to low-income residents have been so popular that the program’s spending may exceed its budget by nearly $150 million.

But the reluctance of so many to enroll, along with the possible exemption of 60,000 residents who cannot afford premiums, has raised questions about whether even a mandate can guarantee truly universal coverage.

According to US News, the best health insurance companies for 2007 by rank:

Blue Cross Blue Shield of MA
ConnectiCare - Conn.
Health Net of Connecticut
Health New England
Anthem Blue Cross & Blue Shield (Conn.)
Fallon Community Health Plan - Mass.
ConnectiCare of Massachusetts
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care
Tufts Associated Health Maintenance Organization (MA RI, CT)
CIGNA HealthCare of New Hampshire
MVP Health Plan - VT. & N.Y.
Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island

Best Medicare Health Plans

Fallon Community Health Plan 86.4
BlueCross & Blue Shield
of Massachusetts86.0

Tufts Associated Health
Maintenance Organizaion 85.8

Preferred Care
Kaiser Foundation Health Plan
of the Northwest85.5
Kaiser Foundation Health Plan
of Southern California