COOPS, EXCHANGES DON’T WORK A look at Massachusetts. GET THE FACTS BEHIND THE NEWS Trudy Lieberman, a contributing editor to the Columbia Journalism Review, has done a stellar job of reporting on the Massachusetts initiative

She found that the Connector( MA exchange) had failed to create affordable insurance OPTIONS for the people in Massachusetts. Using a hypothetical family from Pittsfield in western Mass, Lieberman went shopping on the Connector website. She found that coverage for a 44-year-old couple with an income of $66,150, slightly over the eligibility limit for a state insurance subsidy, “All but three of the fourteen Connector policies cost at least $1,000 a month, or $12,000 a year—eighteen percent of their income.” The cheapest policy, at $820 a month, was no bargain. Yet according to the state’s own guidelines, a Pittsfield family with kids could only afford $364 in monthly premiums. Others point out that Mass has about 93% coverage at high cost. Costs have not been contained.

Like many ideas a health insurance exchange looks better on paper than in practice. When Massachusetts launched its health reform experiment in 2006, it relied heavily on Heritage Foundation policy prescriptions. Under then-Governor Mitt Romney, Massachusetts created a voluntary insurance exchange similar to the one Obama often promotes. Massachusetts outlines some basic requirements for plans that participate but it doesn’t set rates or reimbursement levels. And far from revolutionizing health care, the exchange—known in Massachusetts as the Connector—is demonstrating the limitations of relying solely on the market to solve the nation’s health care woes and rein in skyrocketing medical costs.

Prices vary by age. Lieberman found that if she changed the age of her Pittsfield family, the premiums jumped significantly. Lieberman reports that it’s not just consumers who are complaining. Insurance companies have failed to get the promised deluge of new customers, who’ve been deterred by the high prices.

In the reform bills currently pending in Congress, Democrats have modified the Connector model by introducing a public plan that would compete in the exchange to help keep costs down.

In WA State, which has one of the two regulated Co-Ops in the nation, Group Health Rates for me and my husband and daughter, which would include prescriptions, would be$614 a month or more, up to over $800 a month for a $500 deductible. At the $614/mo rate the deductible for the family would be $4,500.year. There is a 30% co- insurance after deductible, so I would be responsible for anything after the insurance paid 70%, plus the Rxs are paid at 30%-50% only. I would have to pay the balance. For my husband's asthma medication, which is non-generic, that would be over $100/month, every month, on top of the costs above. This plan does not include dental. I could get catastrophic coverage for a lot less for the family, but there would be no Rx coverage and really high deductibles.