Today the Boston Globe
praises the Massachusetts health care reform, aka Romneycare.
They're taking their lead from a paper
(pdf) published by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a
left-wing think tank, and announce that the reform is "only"
costing Massachusetts taxpayers $88 million per year. In return,
400,000-plus more residents have taken up health care insurance.
As Arnold Kling notes, the $88 million is only the added cost
to the state taxpayers. The feds are also picking up an
equivalent amount.
So in other words, the Globe and the Massachusetts
Taxpayers Foundation are proclaiming the program a success on the
basis of only one half of the explicit costs to the state. They
don't include the other half of the explicit costs, not to
mention the implicit costs to all of the people who would rather
have the take-home pay but are now forced to purchase health
insurance. They also don't include the costs of longer waiting
times or higher premiums.
