Massachusetts Passes Health Care Price Controls. Costs Rise Anyway.
7th March 2013
When Mitt Romney made the case for a state-level health reform as governor of Massachusetts, he promised that insurance would become affordable and “the costs of health care will be reduced.” That didn’t work out so well. Costs continued to rise, and health insurance premiums in the state were among the nation’s most expensive. So last year, Romney’s Democratic successor, Deval Patrick, signed into law an ambitious cap on health cost increases. But now it appears that Patrick’s price controls may not work very well either.
My, what a surprise. Aren’t you surprised. I’m sure surprised.
Markets work, even when you don’t want them to. So long as health care remains labor-intensive and heavily burdened by government paperwork, its costs will continue to rise.