When the Members of the “Health Insurance Connector Authority Board” Were Sworn In on Wednesday, They Immediately Had Problems
        The architects of the new “affordable health products” crucial to the success of Mitt Romney’s Healthcare law were sworn in Wednesday in Boston, and within minutes, were besieged with demands that may make it impossible to fulfill their commission.
        It is the responsibility of the “Connector” board members to find a way to make private health insurance at least 40% cheaper than it is now, and get the private health insurance companies to go along with the plan, in order for the nationally lauded legislation to work.  However, also present at the meeting was a broad coalition of special interest groups, the Affordable Care Coalition, that had demands that they expected of the Board which appears to be incompatible with the Board’s mission.
        The Coalition, made up of labor unions, hospitals, medical centers and public health advocates presented the board with its “Fair Principles of True Affordability” guidelines, meant to help with the implementation of the individual mandate included in the health reform legislation.
        Their guidelines call for standards that take into account actual family expenses, such as housing, food, health care, transportation, child care, education, debt, and taxes to determine affordability.  They also say that affordability standards must incorporate geographic variations in housing and other costs, without minimizing benefits. 
        The Connector Board, however, has no intention of creating a Healthcare plan which is different for every uninsured individual, with sliding standards that vary on everything from zip code to how much credit card debt one carries.  Even on the most fundamental level, which is whether the “affordable products” they offer will have the same comprehensive features as what is considered the “norm” for healthcare today, the answer is “No”. 
        The initial projections when the bill was debated that speculated how the Board would lower the cost of health insurance did so by paring back what is offered in the way of benefits.  The plan involved raising the annual deductible for individuals to $1,000.00, increasing the co-pay of the insured, and allowing the insurance companies to not cover anything they consider “discretionary” items.  In other words to reach “affordable” the new healthcare law will have to redefine “coverage” to something far less comprehensive than what we are used today, and require more money out of the pocket of the insured when services are rendered.
        The “Affordable Care Today” Coalition was one of the groups that initially lobbied for the passage of Romney’s healthcare bill.  They may have discovered Wednesday, however, that they have spawned something completely antithetical to their original intentions.