Mass-Care
November 3, 2010
Massachusetts voters have, for the second straight election, overwhelmingly affirmed their support for single payer health reform by turning in majority āYesā votes in all fourteen districts where local single payer ballot questions appeared on November 2.
Single-payer health insurance
Should the state representative from this district be instructed to support legislation establishing health care as a human right regardless of age, state of health, or employment status, by creating a single payer health insurance system like Medicare that is comprehensive, cost effective, and publicly provided to all residents of Massachusetts?
222 of 228 precincts reporting
Yes – 63.5%
No – 36.5%
Comment:
By Don McCanne, MD
The day after the decisive Republican takeover of the U.S. House of Representatives some pundits are claiming that this shift in political power is, in part, due to the rejection of Obamacare – the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. This political message is not completely clear in that there was no national expression of what the public might want instead. But look at what the citizens of Massachusetts have to say.
The people of Massachusetts have been living with Romneycare, a model of health care financing that uses the same fundamental policies as are found in Obamacare. They now know what the nation will know after 2014.
What do they say about Romneycare and Obamacare? Almost two-thirds of voters in districts that considered this issue would reject Obamacare and Romneycare in favor of “creating a single payer health insurance system like Medicare that is comprehensive, cost effective, and publicly provided to all residents of Massachusetts.”
And, oh yes, the citizens of Vermont elected, as governor, Peter Shumlin, an outspoken advocate of single payer.
Some of the people do seem to be getting the message that single payer is for their benefit, but we have much more work to do to educate the others.