When you read the article below, remember that Romneycare, while not right for the country, was right for Massachusetts:
BOSTON HERALD – The Bay State’s controversial 2006 universal health-care plan — also known as “Romneycare” — has cost Massachusetts more than 18,000 jobs, according to an exclusive blockbuster study that could provide ammo to GOP rivals of former Gov. Mitt Romney as he touts his job-creating chops on the campaign trail.
“Mandating health insurance coverage and expanding the demand for health services without increasing supply drove up costs. Economics 101 tells us that,” said Paul Bachman, research director at Suffolk University’s Beacon Hill Institute, the conservative think tank that conducted the study. The Herald obtained an exclusive copy of the findings.
“The ‘shared sacrifice’ needed to provide universal health care includes a net loss of jobs, which is attributable to the higher costs that the measure imposed,” said David Tuerck, the institute’s executive director.
“The United States is looking down the barrel of this with national health-care reform,” Bachman told the Herald, noting that Massachusetts’ first-in-the-nation heath-care overhaul — a hallmark of the Romney administration — was a template for President Obama’s national health-care law. …
The Beacon Hill Institute study found that, on average, Romneycare:
• cost the Bay State 18,313 jobs;
• drove up total health insurance costs in Massachusetts by $4.311 billion;
• slowed the growth of disposable income per person by $376; and
• reduced investment in Massachusetts by $25.06 million.
“We think it’s very pertinent and very similar to the health-care law that was passed nationally — it’s a case study,” Bachman said. “This is what happened in Massachusetts, and this is what can be expected from the national health-care act.”
The institute analyzed trends in health-care costs before and after the state law was passed. Researchers compared the Bay State’s numbers to national health-care cost trends. They found that instead of reducing health-care expenses as advocates had promised, Romneycare actually increased costs by $4.3 billion. Using computer modeling to determine the effect of those increased costs on businesses and Bay State residents, the institute concluded that the law has cost Massachusetts an average of 18,313 jobs.
“We found once we took the increase in health-care costs and health insurance costs and ran it through our computer model, there were fewer jobs than there otherwise would have been,” Bachman said.
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