Group of 24

An article this weekend in the NY Times reported on an effort by 24 national leaders, of all political stripes and organizations, who have been meeting for months in secret to figure out a plan that would expand health care coverage to as many uninsured people as possible. The report said the group has been meeting in secret to avoid political pressure. Leaders from unions have sat down with leaders from the Heritage Foundation to try and find a solution to one of the nation’s biggest problems. It is a reflection of the depth of the crisis that partisanship and ideology have taken a back seat. This kind of dialogue is critical if we are to succeed in achieving the goal of health care for all. However, this kind of sit-down has happened before, and nothing has come of it. Talk is important, but is also, as they say, cheap. The reason we need the health care constitutional amendment is so that not only will people sit down and talk about the problem, but they will then be required to do something about it. The amendment will also act as the lock in for whatever plan the stakeholders agree on.

Must-read article; Oregon Update

Must read column by Chip Joffe-Halpern in the North Adams Transcript titled “Let’s face up to health care needs.” Chip is the executive director of Ecu-Heath Care in North Adams and the president of the Board of Directors of Health Care for All in Boston. Well said Chip.

Follow up to our blog yesterday regarding the new health care constitutional amendment initiative being considered in Oregon. This article appeared yesterday in the Daily Vanguard, an Oregon college newspaper. The initiative campaign seeks to put a measure on the November 2006 ballot that would require the Legislature to come up with a plan to extend affordable health care to more Oregonians. "We can no longer tolerate leaving 600,000 Oregonians without health insurance," Rep. Mitch Greenlick, D-Portland, said at a news conference Wednesday to announce the initiative drive. The proposal gives the Legislature two sessions (until 2009) to come up with a solution, but does not dictate what the solution must be. We wish our sister campaign in Oregon the very best.

Bi-Coastal Health Reform

Today, the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO) will hold a kick-off rally for health care reform. Check out the Globe coverage. The event is expected to draw more than 1,000 people. GBIO has joined Health Care For All’s Affordable Care Today Campaign (link) and will pledge their support to gather signatures for a health care ballot initiative for November 2006 which would raise the cigarette tax by 50¢ and mandate all but the smallest employers provide coverage or pay into a fund. We should all applaud their efforts to push the access envelope to the max. The Health Care Constitutional Amendment, if ratified, will make it much more likely that their proposal or any other access expansion enacted by the voters will stick.
Yesterday we discussed on this page how the Constitutional Amendment approach may become a model for national reform, and how states usually lead the way in important reform. Well, seek and ye shall receive. Today, we saw this article (registration required) about health care reform in Oregon. Guess what? It looks like Oregonians might try the Constitutional Amendment path as well. Three state legislators, frustrated with the lack of action, are gearing up to gather signatures to amend their state Constitution so that if voters approve the amendment in November 2006, the state constitution would then require the Legislature to "expand health care coverage so that every Oregon resident is able to obtain effective and affordable health care on a regular basis.” We do not have any more details yet, but we’ll be sure to let you know as we find out more. Once again it looks like Massachusetts is leading the way.

Demand for National Action

The Christian Science Monitor (full article) reported today that the National Coalition on Health Care (link), consisting of corporations, unions, healthcare organizations, religious groups, and pensions called on Congress and the President to address the Nation’s healthcare crisis. They argue, citing polls, that healthcare is a greater public concern than social security.
The broad-based nature of the coalition, including people from public and private sectors, indicates the broad societal concern about healthcare. The healthcare crisis is certainly a growing national problem. National problems are often solved with programs based on state-level reform. We hope the amendment, in addition to fixing the problem in Massachusetts, may become a model for national reform. As a state, we have led the way before, and the amendment may be just one more way that the Bay State stays on the leading edge of reform and good governance.

Left Meets Right on Healthcare

There is news from the national front that confounds the typical left/right view of healthcare. A new poll (link) from the Pew Charitable Trust shows that both conservatives and liberals favor health insurance for all, even if taxes increase. This defies the old notion of where the left/right healthcare breakdown lies. A whopping 65% of respondents favored government guaranteed health insurance for all, including more than 55% of conservatives. The survey broke different brands of left and right, and support was high across the board. The question asked specifically about government-run insurance, which the amendment does not mandate. However, support was strong for a government guarantee. Instead, a government program would be one among many solutions that could meet the amendment’s requirements. Increasingly, it seems that both the right and the left believe that the time to reform healthcare is now. In Massachusetts, the foundation for that reform is the Health Care Amendment.

Progressive Prescriptions for a Healthy America

The Center for American Progress has launched the Progressive
Priorities Project. More than a dozen papers will be released
outlining a "vision for progressive policymaking." Progressive
Prescriptions for a Healthy America is the tenth paper and addresses the nation's health care crisis. The paper presents a plan that guarantees affordable, valuable health coverage for everyone and ensures that cost is not a "barrier to coverage." The Center recognizes American's dedication to ensuring "greater opportunity and security for all" through health care. Click here to read more.

Legislative Letters

Yesterday, campaign staffers delivered letters to Senators and Representatives on Beacon Hill informing them of the Campaign’s progress. The letter contained information about our latest poll results which we released on the blog last Thursday. The State House News Service covered the poll results in their State Capitol Briefs yesterday.

We have re-tooled our volunteer sign-up form to work with our new database system. We’re thrilled! Check it out here and sign up to get involved with the Campaign.

Mass. Medical Society Supports Universal Health Insurance Coverage

Last Friday, the Massachusetts Medical Society’s House of Delegates (the governing body of the state’s physician organization) issued its support of universal health insurance coverage. At the Society’s Annual Meeting in Boston delegates voted unanimously to adopt a resolution “supporting the achievement of universal insurance coverage” and adopt the five principles from the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) report “Insurance American’s Health: Principles and Recommendations.”
The IOM principles recommend that health care coverage be universal, continuous, affordable to individuals and families, affordable and sustainable to society, and enhance health and well-being by promoting access to care that is effective, efficient, safe, timely, patient-centered, and equitable.

Democratic Party Convention, 121 Launched

This past weekend Democrats from across the state met in Lowell for the annual party convention. We had a great time, and were thrilled to see them adopt several new platform planks on health care: 1) “We support a constitutional amendment that affirms the right to universal coverage and quality healthcare; 2) The Commonwealth must act to provide affordable health insurance to all residents; and 3) We believe that healthcare is a fundamental right.”
At the convention, we handed out over one thousand of our new fliers explaining the Health Care Amendment, met with activists from around the state, and gathered endorsements from convention goers.

We also launched our new 121 Campaign. Curious about it? Click here to find out more.

Poll Shows Strong Support For Reform

A new poll commissioned by the Campaign and conducted by respected pollster Gerry Chervinsky of KRC Communications Research for The State House News Service shows an overwhelming mandate for major health care reform and strong support for the Health Care Amendment. By a 4-1 margin, voters favor the Amendment (75.5%-20.7%). An incredible 82.6% believed that all residents of Massachusetts should be able to get high quality care, regardless of their ability to pay. The poll surveyed 400 voters from May 4-6, 2005 and had a margin of +/- 4.8%.
There is majority support for the Amendment in every group polled. Women favor the idea more strongly than men; younger respondents favor the Amendment more strongly than do older respondents; and Democrats and Independents favor the Amendment more strongly than do Republicans.

ConCon Convened - Health Care Amendment First in Line

Senate Majority Leader Fredrick Berry gaveled open the 2005-2006 Constitutional Convention today at 1:03 pm. At 1:05 pm the ConCon adopted a motion to recess until Wednesday, August 24, 2005 at 1 pm. The Health Care Amendment is the first item on the calendar.

Costs a Problem for States, Businesses

A great article today in the NY Times business section discussing health care reform across the states (click here). The article discusses how the lack of action on the federal level has led states to try a variety of approaches to deal with the healthcare crisis. Most approaches have dealt with employer mandates, or ‘pay or play’ types of initiatives. Regardless, the ballooning costs are an issue for both states and businesses, as the article points out.

The Bush Administration announced on Monday $1 billion dollars to hospitals for emergency care to illegal aliens. Hospitals have complained about the financial burden of treating this patient population. (click for article)

Constitutional Convention Set to Begin

The House and Senate this morning adopted an order calling for a Constitutional Convention to begin Wednesday, May 11 at 1 pm. According to the State House News Service, a spokeswoman for Senate President Robert Travaglini said the convention will likely be gaveled in and immediately recessed until the fall.
The Health Care Amendment, approved by the Legislature sitting in 2003-2004, was automatically put on the ConCon Calendar and needs 50 votes out of 200 to advance to the ballot in November 2006.
Last Friday, Campaign Manager Michael Carr and Field Organizer Lesley Hawkins delivered a legislative letter to Beacon Hill, updating Senators and Representatives on the campaign’s progress. This weekend we’ll be heading to the Democratic convention in Lowell-- look for us there.

A Youth Issue

The Commonwealth Fund released two reports yesterday regarding health care for young adults and health care for children.
The first report (link) looked at care for young children. Citing the growing body of evidence that proper care is critical during a child’s early development, the report noted only 57 percent of parents had their child’s development evaluated by a pediatrician. Pediatricians, in a separate survey, described time constraints and inadequate reimbursements as reasons for not being able to provide adequate developmental services. This type of reimbursement pattern is common: procedure-heavy specialties are often extremely well compensated, while others are not. The result is often harried clinic visits and inadequate counseling.
The second report (link) described young adults (19-29) as one of the “largest and fastest growing segments of the U.S. population without health insurance.” Often, young men and women lose their coverage when they graduate from high school or college and are no longer covered by their parents’ plans. In numbers: more than 13 million lacked coverage, an increase of 2.2 million. Two in five college graduates go without health care their first year out of college. The report also discusses ways of fixing this problem.

Healthcare Discussion in Washington

Today in Washington, Democrats are expected to unveil a plan calling for expanded health care coverage. According to the Washington Post, the proposal has several key features:

-Allowing Americans 55-64 to buy into Medicare, the program that currently provides all Americans over 65 with healthcare.
-A 50% tax credit to help the self-employed and small businesses afford health insurance.
-Allow the re-importation of prescription drugs from Canada.
-Allow Medicare to bargain for prescription drug prices. Currently, Medicare is the only large healthcare purchaser who cannot bargain; the Veterans’ Administration, the states, and large companies can bargain over prices.

While it is not very likely we will see any action on the federal level advancing health care, the proposal shows the rising concern for the problem and the desire for action to be taken. In Massachusetts that desire for action has produced several plans that have a very good chance to become reality before the end of our legislative session next year.

Airlift Competition

The NY Times ran an interesting article (link) today on the proliferation of medical airlifts across the country. The article is instructive in several ways, especially because it highlights the dynamic often at work in a competitive medical system.
When a new airlift company would move into an area the number of calls any one operator received would drop, because the overall call volume remained about the same. The same pie was being divided into a greater number of pieces. As a result, each helicopter company raised its prices. Prices went up for everyone.
The general rise in prices was not the only thing that happened, as companies were only drawn to places where there was a high proportion of insured patients who could pay for the services. Patients without insurance still did not get the services they needed. It’s a phenomena we’ve seen in many areas of healthcare—everyone rushes to help the patients who have insurance, and leaves those without it in the cold.

Massachusetts Mirrors National Trends

This week is Cover the Uninsured Week, organized to draw attention to the plight of the millions of uninsured around the country (official website). In conjunction with the week’s events, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (link) released a report today that highlighted several appalling trends:

-Almost half (49 percent) of uninsured adults with chronic conditions forgo needed medical care or prescription drugs due to cost. Uninsured adults with chronic conditions were 4.5 times as likely as their insured counterparts to report an unmet need for medical care or prescription drugs.
-Uninsured adults with chronic medical conditions (things like high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease) were 4.5 as likely to report an unmet need for medical care or prescription drugs.

In a related poll, 3 out of 4 adults fear losing their health insurance.

All these reasons are vivid illustrations of why a constitutional amendment is needed. Everyone deserves access to affordable, comprehensive and equitably financed health care coverage, and no one should have to worry about losing it. It is a right, a responsibility, and an economic imperative.