Reply #5: Krugman: "Misinformed on Massachusetts" [View All]

From http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/02/misinformed-on-massachusetts/:

"While we’re talking about health care reform: I’ve been getting a fair bit of mail from people who have heard that things are going very badly in Massachusetts. And there have, indeed, been some very downbeat reports in the media lately.

The problem is that they’re all wrong. People are confusing an increase in costs that was largely (not completely) anticipated — after all, the plan is supposed to cover more people, and subsidize their coverage — with a cost overrun.

The fact is that the plan does seem to be making a serious dent in the number of uninsured. One thing that has come to light is that there may have been more uninsured people in Massachusetts to start with than previously estimated, so there’s a steeper hill to climb. But claims that it’s all a disaster are based on nothing but bad journalism."