Today’s Boston Globe has a lead article about the higher than expected costs for Massachusetts’ healthcare program implemented to create near universal insurance coverage. The costs of this program have been greater than expected due primarily to more people joining the subsidized health insurance program. (This greater than expected number has been attributed to underestimates of the actual number of uninsured in Massachusetts prior to the start of the Commonwealth Care program.)
The higher costs are certainly a problem for the state’s budget – although almost 50% of these costs may be paid for by the Federal government under the state’s Medicaid waiver.…