It’s that time of year when I get the invoice from my health care insurer, telling exactly how much my healthcare would go up this year.

Most years I brace myself for a 10-15% mark-up. Last year, the first year of the Massachusetts (infamous) Health Care Reform, the premium hike was (I kid you not) 47%.

This year, when I called my health care insurer to brace myself for the always horrific news, I couldn’t believe it, it was “good” news. My health care premiums actually went down. And in fact they offered me a better plan for less.

I kept saying, “What?” “Are you sure?”

And finally when I asked “Why?” (because in all the decades this has never happened before) the answer was that it was too expensive for people and they could not pay.

No kidding.

So maybe someone in MA, got the message that the (infamous) Massachusetts Health Care Reform has the potential for bankrupting the middleclass and putting small businesses out of business of (see earlier post).

(And as a btw, from the responses from my various public representatives concerning my horror to premium hike-ups last year, Senator Steven Baddour got an F-. I still have his response from August 20, 2007 on my desk. And I glare at it, still.)

My premiums are more affordable. But are my premiums actually really and truly affordable? No.

It is a step in the right direction. But there are a whole lot more steps to go.

Thank you, particularly the Boston Globe, for writing very courageous articles on how the new (infamous) Massachusetts Health Care Reform would be causing so much anguish for small businesses, middle aged folks (the article about the woman eating popcorn for dinner, so that she could pay for her mandated heath care premiums) and the middle class.

Thank you to all those people who spoke up and continue to speak up. May this “downward spiral” be just the beginning of affordable and quality health care for everyone.