The Real Romney 10: Health Care

In my latest reading of The Real Romney, Michael Kranish and Scott Helman talk about the outcome of Romney-care in Massachusetts.  They say that Romney-care has dramatically reduced the number of the uninsured and that more businesses are now providing health insurance to employees.  Yet, health care costs continue to rise.  Kranish and Helman don't think this is the fault of Romney-care, though, for Massachusetts had the highest health care costs in the U.S. prior to Romney-care.  Kranish and Helman conclude by saying that Romney-care "remains a work in progress, an ongoing experiment, especially when it comes to bringing costs down" (page 278).

I think it's sad that Romney-care did not bring down health care costs, since that should be the goal of health care reform.  Wasn't the whole idea behind the health insurance mandate that it would bring down costs because the cost of "free" emergency care for the uninsured would no longer be passed on to the consumers, since people would pull their own weight by having insurance?  Why, then, do costs continue to rise?