HEALTH POLICY FRAMEWORK BILL CREATES COUNCIL
TO MEET 10 BROAD GOALS
By Amy Lambiaso
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE
STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, FEB. 9, 2004….Citing
rising overall costs, growing numbers of uninsured
residents, and increased competition for health
care industry jobs, leading lawmakers on Monday
detailed a broad plan to lay out a new health
care policy framework.
The legislative plan comes as Gov. Mitt Romney’s
administration continues to grapple with its
own plan to expand health care services while
containing costs. Health and Human Services
Secretary Ronald Preston is working on a proposal
that Romney says may be ready sometime this
year. Beacon Hill’s latest effort, led
by Sen. Richard Moore (D-Uxbridge), is a response
to years of budget cuts and public health crises
without “any comprehensive plan to guide
those critical choices,” said Moore, co-chairman
of the Health Care Committee.
State officials and health care advocates say
those budget cuts, combined with rising costs
and increased mandates, have conspired to create
a thorny mess. “Until now, we’ve
had no vision of where we want our health care
system to go or how to get there,” said
Moore.
The plan, referred to as “A Caring Commonwealth,
The Health Care Policy of Massachusetts,”
lays out 10 goals for improving the health care
system and establishes a 33-member Massachusetts
Health Policy Coordinating Council to help implement
the goals and issue annual progress reports.
The committee intends to advance the bill (S
2145) following a public hearing on Wednesday,
aides said. The policy agenda runs for 42 pages
and features more than 150 objectives on how
to achieve the 10 basic goals by 2015. Many
can be achieved within the next year or by 2010,
according to the bill.
“There is very little else you could do
this year that is more important than this,”
said John McDonough, executive director of Health
Care For All, during Monday’s public hearing.
“We know the problems are bigger than
Medicaid. Medicaid is simply the tail, it is
not the dog.”
The 10 goals are patient-centered care, specifically
patient safety, effectiveness, timeliness of
care, efficiency and equity; prevention and
care management; providing universal health
care for all residents; strengthening the public
health system; strengthening the preparedness
for a public health emergency; establishing
a funding mechanism to support health care needs
during tight fiscal times; retaining the doctors
and health care professionals that train in
Massachusetts; maintaining the health care system’s
role as central in the state’s economy;
developing a system for the “least restrictive
environment” for people as they get older,
and achieving a system of “compassionate
end of life care.”
Health care experts, on hand Monday to welcome
the bill and offer their support, said because
Massachusetts is a national leader in the bio-tech
and medical industry, an industry that is key
to the state’s economy, the state needs
to be more active about maintaining the industry’s
health.
- MORE -
HEALTH POLICY FRAMEWORK BILL CREATES COUNCIL
TO MEET 10 BROAD GOALS
“Right now, we are leading the nation
in our retreat from coverage. We can lose our
edge,” said Ron Hollander, president of
the Massachusetts Hospital Association. “Without
coverage, everything else falls apart.”
Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts
Taxpayers Foundation, said the state is in “desperate”
need of creating a long-term planning system
for its health care programs to replace the
myriad priorities and proposals that currently
exist in a largely informal fashion.
“We’ve gotten into this situation
where everybody loses,” he said. “We
all give lip service to health care, education
and workforce development training, that they
are critical to our future. And while that’s
all well and good, and true, we need to support
those areas. And health care is certainly at
the top of the list.” Prior to Monday’s
State House hearing, Moore held oversight hearings
in Waltham, Springfield and Worcester during
the fall, attended by many of the same experts
who lent their voice on Monday.
Public Health Commissioner Christine Ferguson
was unable to attend Monday, but was at the
Waltham hearing in October when she told the
committee: “the Romney administration
is very much in sync with the goals of your
policy,” according to Moore’s staff.
Information on the bill and full details of
the plan is available at
www.caringcommonwealth.com.
www.statehousenews.com
< Return to News Room Index
|
