Massachusetts has become the country’s first state to provide full health insurance to low-income HIV-patients and health care subsidies to residents over 65 and people with qualified disabilities. The first plan called MassHealth, which went into effect Sunday, allows recipients access to state medical benefits until they develop AIDS. Upwards of 33,000 state residents are living with HIV, and of those people, about 1,000 would qualify for this new plan because they earn less than $17,000 a year.
The second law, Prescription Advantage, effective on Monday, covers the full cost of prescription drugs after participants have spent $2,000 or 10 percent of their annual income in out-of-pocket costs. The state’s 1.1 million elderly residents whose medical expenses have skyrocketed over the past few years will benefit from the program. In addition, younger people with certain disabilities will receive guaranteed money to offer their medical costs.
The state has acted on a national discussion about health care benefits to create this model program for the country. Although Senate President Thomas Birmingham (D-Suffolk) said Washington legislators have discussed creating such a plan, the Commonwealth is taking the lead in providing comprehensive health care coverage to people who cannot afford it otherwise.
Far too often, access to quality health care depends on economic status. In some other Western countries such as Sweden, citizens do not have to worry about whether they can afford health care payments because their governments cover those expenses. Governments should accept the financial burdens of health care costs.
The United States sadly lags behind other countries in the ways that it provides for its citizens. While some critics may argue that providing full health care would hurt the nation’s economy or that the costs may exceed its practical worth, the federal government should look to those countries where it is successful and develop a plan that would work for Americans.
The state should be commended for taking this important first step toward insuring the complete health care access to all its residents because as Birmingham said, “We stopped talking about it, and we did something.”
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