Everybody loves universal health care - until the bill comes due

(Via CJR's Campaign Desk)

The Massachusetts heath care plan is a media darling. But it's a bit early to trumpet its success:

Employers balked at the idea of having to cover their workers and, instead, got away with putting $295 per worker per year into a special pot to help pay for the subsidies—a much cheaper alternative. Financing came from a variety of sources, including general revenues and money from the state’s free care pool. The state paid hospitals to treat the poor (who now theoretically had insurance), thus providing a payment stream to the hospitals, so they wouldn’t need to dip into the pool. A big chunk also came from the federal government through the Medicaid waiver program, which allows all states to expand coverage by leveraging federal dollars.

This being health care - all these funding methods aren't covering the program's costs.

Now the state has to wrangle with the Fed to keep the money flowing - and the Fed's isn't eager to spend more money on a plan that was supposed to cost the Fed less.

Its a tangled web of a story, but worth reading if you want to get a sense for the difficulties this flavor of universal is up against.

• CJR's blub
• Full story from Wicked Local