Boston Globe's meaningless health care poll

I honestly don't understand the relevance of this poll in the Globe indicating "State's health system popular." For the vast majority of people in the Bay State, the Massachusetts health insurance mandate had no effect since most people already had health care through employers. It's like polling everybody in America how they feel about in-ground pools. Love 'em!

President Obama tells us, again and again, that the reason health care reform is necessary is because of spiraling costs. These costs have not been contained in Massachusetts:

Double-digit increases in premiums have become almost routine in Massachusetts, with the state’s major insurers saying they will raise rates about 10 percent next year. This trend began well before the overhaul passed, however, and when asked whether the law was having an impact on the cost of their own care, only about one-quarter of those surveyed said the law was “hurting’’ their own costs.

In fact, Beacon Hill politicians were so keen to pass the insurance mandate, they didn't even think about the cost; that was for later:

Blendon said the survey’s findings on cost control suggest that perhaps leaders in Washington should consider following the Massachusetts formula: Aim for universal coverage first, and then tackle costs.

"The fact that Massachusetts is still going along with a still relatively popular law, by doing it in pieces, may be the best piece of advice Massachusetts can give the nation," he said."This was politically doable here because all of the difficult choices of slowing costs weren’t on the table."

Wow, that's leadership: candy first and cavities later. So far the cost of government health care in Massachusetts have only risen but, we swear, we're going to tackle the cost issue soon.