The longest wait time in the country. That's from last night's ABC news report entitled "Talking to Doctors" - after Obamacare became the law of the land. (video)
It's nice to know our indolent media watchdogs will bark after the fact.
But even a pup could have stumbled into this water bowl. In 2006, then Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney signed into law something very similar to Obamacare - the Massachusetts health reform plan. It isn't working well.
"While Massachusetts' uninsured rate has dropped to around 3%, 68% of the newly insured since 2006 receive coverage that is heavily or completely subsidized by taxpayers. While Mr. Romney insisted that everyone should pay something for coverage, that is not the way his plan has turned out. More than half of the 408,000 newly insured residents pay nothing, according to a February 2010 report by the Massachusetts Health Connector, the state's insurance exchange.
Another 140,000 remained uninsured in 2008 and were either assessed a penalty or exempted from the individual mandate because the state deemed they couldn't afford the premiums.
Mr. Romney's promise that getting everyone covered would force costs down also is far from being realized. One third of state residents polled by Harvard researchers in a study published in "Health Affairs" in 2008 said that their health costs had gone up as a result of the 2006 reforms. A typical family of four today faces total annual health costs of nearly $13,788, the highest in the country. Per capita spending is 27% higher than the national average. "
From the ever complacent ABC News info-babe, Diane Sawyer:
"And as this major change in health care was taking place, we've heard very little from the Doctors...."
Seriously, Diane?
The "44 day wait to see a Massachusetts' doctor" clocks in at 1:52, for those counting.
