By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

A must-read piece on the problems of the Massachusetts plan, which is a kind of pilot project for what Congress has in mind for national health care reform. Main points: Thanks to "reform," insurance premiums are rising faster than the national average and access to care is declining.
Although supporters of the Massachusetts plan had hoped it would save money, the opposite has occurred. The state expects to spend $595 million more in 2009 on its health insurance program than it did in 2006 — a 42% increase.
In response, a special state commission has proposed controlling costs by radically restructuring how doctors and hospitals will be paid. Instead of paying providers based on the services they render, the state would pay a fixed annual fee to cover all of a patient’s medical needs. In theory, this would give providers an incentive to improve efficiency and eliminate unnecessary tests and treatments.
But in practice, this would also create a dangerous incentive for physicians and hospitals to render as little care as possible. Under the Massachusetts proposal, if your care costs less than your annual allotment, then the providers would keep the unused portion. If your care costs more, then the difference would come out of their pockets. Such a system thus pits your doctor’s interests against your own.
Wonderful: It costs more and delivers less, and the Dems are determined to ram this down our throats whether we want it or not.