President Obama travels to Massachusetts today, but he won’t be touting the efforts of the state’s universal healthcare exchange as a model for health reform. Instead, he’ll be raising money for its current Democratic governor who just recently announced his plans for insurance reform in the state.

Massachusetts’ universal coverage initiative has the broad support of the majority of physicians in the state — a constituency which matters greatly. Since the state’s expansion of coverage in 2006, at least 97% of residents are covered and a solid majority of them favor continuation of the program.

But you’ll have to forgive Obama if he feels like containing his enthusiasm for a state mandate that appears to be doing much on the front end but will continue to accrue costs at the expense of rapidly increasing premiums, tax increases, and cuts in programs which provide coverage to the state’s legal immigrants. Obama’s pledge to ensure coverage for all without adding to deficit spending is something that appears to be at odds with what is happening in a state which bears a striking resemblance to universal coverage on a national scale. His refusal to acknowledge it^[1] only adds to many a Senate lawmakers’ hesitancy in richly embracing a public option. | LINK

1. Obama will be discussing clean energy initiatives in Mass. today. [↩]

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