Today, Cato releases a new paper on the Massachusetts health plan by David Hyman, a Cato adjunct scholar and professor of law & medicine at the University of Illinois. Hyman’s paper is titled, “The Massachusetts Health Plan: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” 


Here’s an excerpt:

Although the legislation, as Stuart Altman put it, “is not a typical Massachusetts‐​Taxachusetts, oh‐​just‐​crazy‐​liberal plan,” there is enough “bad” and “ugly” in the mix to raise serious concerns, particularly when the desire to overregulate the health insurance market appears to be hard‐​wired into Massachusetts policymakers’ DNA…

If we want to make health insurance more affordable and avoid the “bad” and the “ugly” of the Massachusetts plan, Congress—or, barring that, individual states—should consider a “regulatory federalism” approach.