cost of romneys mass health care plan

Cost of Romney's Mass. Health-care Plan Skyrocketing

According to recent reports, the cost of Massachusetts' health

insurance mandate will rise 85 percent, or $400 million, in 2009.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R), meanwhile, has been on the

presidential campaign trail praising the program he put into place.

According to The Boston Globe, the cost increase is largely due to an

increase in the number of people signing up for state-subsidized

health insurance. State and federal taxpayers are likely to shoulder

the cost increase.

"Essentially, the people who signed up under the mandate were the

people who were getting subsidies," said Michael Tanner, director of

health and welfare studies at the libertarian Cato Institute.

Carmen Balber, a consumer advocate at Foundation for Taxpayer and

Consumer Rights, added, "What we've seen happen in Massachusetts is

that lots of people are signing up for subsidized care," although

"just 7 to 8 percent of the people who have newly signed up for health

insurance have enrolled in a program they must pay full price for."

Tanner told Cybercast News Service that the state will likely need to

raise taxes to cover the additional costs.

Romney, however, has been campaigning on the health insurance plan as

a success.

"We put in place a plan that gets every citizen in our state health

insurance, and it didn't cost us new money," he said during the

Republican debate in New Hampshire on Jan. 5. "It didn't require us to

raise taxes."

Mitt Romney likes to brag that he got universal coverage in

Massachusetts without a tax increase," said Tanner. "I don't think