The failure of the American heath-care system is currently one of the greatest challenges faced by the Congress and individual states.
The problem entails skyrocketing health insurance costs and a large population lacking coverage, which means that those patients without coverage may still receive medical care at the cost of the hospital in which they are treated.
Hillary Clinton attempted to solve this crisis via a program known as Hillarycare in 1993 - a plan which mandated all employers to provide health insurance to their employees. Despite being initially well received, lobbyists of the health-care industry mounted great resistance, stopping the plan in its tracks.
Thirteen years later, the state of Massachusetts is attempting a return to the idea of universal health-care through a proposal supported by Republican Governor Mitt Romney. The bill introduced in the Massachusetts state legislature will attempt to guarantee insurance for 500,000 currently uninsured residents. While this task is only a small step toward guaranteeing health-care for the 46 million Americans currently lacking coverage, it is a bold step for a governor who may be seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2008.
The Massachusetts proposal, should it pass, will make health insurance compulsory - in effect, mandating that every body, like every car, must be insured. The bill allows an exception only for those people with sufficient funds to pay for major surgery themselves.
Implementation of the law will allow for health insurance to be purchased with pre-tax wages. Further incentives for employers to provide insurance will come from state subsidies that allow companies to offer basic insurance to those that cannot afford more complete coverage. Any individual which fails to purchase insurance will effectively be fined and penalized in their tax returns.
Massachusetts, in recent years, has done a good job of providing insurance for those citizens poor enough to qualify for Medicaid but are not registered. According to a relatively new program, any resident who qualifies for Medicaid is automatically registered in Massachusetts.
The supposed effects of this program will be to decrease (or slow the rise) of insurance premiums because of the increase in volume of people insured. Emergency rooms will hopefully also become less crowded as the insured visit hospitals before medical conditions become serious.
Before analyzing the true usefulness of the plan, one must first recognize the true reason for universal health-care. Essentially, the health-care system is a method of reducing individual burdens of major health operations given that most people do not have sufficient funds to provide for every health emergency. Universal health-care, however, has a different purpose. This is to protect hospitals and doctors from having to provide services for which nothing is gained in return - a breakdown of capitalism.
While many do not think of the health-care industry as primarily capitalistic, it, nevertheless, works towards the accumulation of profit (which may or may not be reinvested into the industry). Thus, the Massachusetts proposal is quite clearly a conservative policy, even though, at first glance, it appears rather liberal.
The medical usefulness of such a policy has already been admitted. Yet, the bill does not only benefit the health-care industry and those who will be insured under the new program. It also provides a clever way of promoting Mr. Romney's political agenda.
Compare Hillarycare with the new Massachusetts proposal: The former was an utter failure due to partisan bickering and the lobbying power of the health-care industry. The latter, however, will likely be a success due to its bipartisan support as well as the support of the industry. Should this policy succeed, it could be adopted by other states and eventually nationwide.
Mr. Romney will then receive most of the credit for the plan, clearly helping him in the Republican presidential primaries. Then, if he wins the nomination in 2008, Romney will be able to campaign on his aptitude in solving the great heath-care crisis where his projected Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, will have previously failed.
