No Delay

A friendly suggestion today:

Obama Health Law Needs Delay, State Insurance Head Says

President Barack Obama may need to delay his health-care overhaul or risk “chaos” when subsidized insurance plans go on sale in October, the head of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners said.

It’s unclear how well the federal government or any of the participating states will perform on Oct. 1, when millions of Americans are supposed to begin shopping at online markets created by the law, Jim Donelon, the NAIC’s president, said in an interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. While the administration has shown no sign of seeking a delay, it may be in the president’s best interest, he said.

“It’s his calling-card, signature issue and to rush it into implementation before it’s ready would not be in his overall interest,” said Donelon, a Republican who’s also Louisiana’s insurance commissioner. State officials around the U.S. “don’t want it to create chaos.”

But we've seen this movie before.

Health Care Plan Falters In Massachusetts Slump

Published: April 11, 1991

BOSTON— The Massachusetts plan to guarantee health insurance for all, once hailed as a model for the nation, is faltering under the weight of a soured economy, a hostile new Governor and the fierce opposition of small-business owners, who would be required to pay for coverage of employees.

The pathbreaking plan was adopted in 1988, as Gov. Michael S. Dukakis promoted universal health care in his campaign for the Democratic Presidential nomination, and was to be phased in over several years. Major parts of it resemble proposals being considered in other states and Congress as the nation confronts spiraling health costs and widening gaps in the insurance system.

The plan's centerpiece -- a requirement that businesses employing six or more workers offer them health insurance or pay the state to do it -- was originally scheduled to take effect next January. But it now seems unlikely to materialize for years, if ever. The new Governor, William F. Weld, a conservative Republican, has asked the state legislature to repeal it, calling the requirement "an obstacle rather than a vehicle for improved health benefits for all."

The 1988 law required every resident of Massachusetts to have an offer of coverage by April of 1992. But given the challenges noted in the 1991 New York Times article above, the state delayed implementation of the law's linchpin, the employer mandate.

Even proponents of the mandated employer benefits want a delay to let the recession ease, and the Democrat-controlled state legislature voted last month to postpone the requirement until 1994.

Ultimately that delay proved indefinite and the employer mandate was repealed in 1996. And while some pieces of the 1988 law stood and were expanded upon in the same 1996 legislation that repealed the employer mandate, the fact remains that delaying implementation hollowed out and ultimately killed the centerpiece of that reform law. And it was a full 18 years after its 1988 universal health care law was passed that the state went all in and tried again.

There may well be some chaos later this year. But no delays.