Massachusetts Subsidized Healthcare Costs Double

The Boston Globe is reporting that the cost of Massachusetts subsidized healthcare plan is expected to double.

State projections obtained by the Globe show the program reaching 342,000 people and $1.35 billion in annual expenses by June 2011. Those figures would far outstrip the original plans for the Commonwealth Care program, largely because state officials underestimated the number of uninsured residents.

Currently, 169,000 people have enrolled in the program, which is expected to cost $618 million in the fiscal year ending June 30. When it authorized the program in 2006, the Legislature estimated that about 215,000 people would eventually be enrolled at a cost of $725 million. State officials in late 2006 reduced that estimate to between 140,000 and 160,000 - a number that was surpassed last year.

This is a small taste of what the true costs universal healthcare would be. As I explained in Government, free markets, and healthcare, only a true free market for healthcare would maximize coverage at the lowest costs. Unfortunately, we haven't had a free market in healthcare for 70 years.