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MA healthcare initiative hits another snag

Patient Financial Services Weekly Advisor, March 19, 2007

Massachusetts' ambitious universal healthcare initiative, which officials in many other states have vowed to model, has hit another snag as officials struggle to insure the uninsured but also force those with coverage to buy more, reports the Boston Globe.

Officials recommended allowing residents extra time to obtain better insurance.

"It's a balancing act," Jon Kingsdale, executive director of the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector, which is overseeing implementation of the new law, told the Globe. "It took two to three years to get the law enacted. It will take two to three years to implement it."

Officials in other states are monitoring the Massachusetts initiative closely. But House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, who helped write the law, said the delay in implementing the plan doesn't indicate that the initiative won't succeed.

"It's a matter of taking extra steps to get to that goal," DiMasi told the Globe. We're moving to universal insurance and then toward insurance that has substantial benefits. That's the key."

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