One of the main incentives for passing the new health care law was the promise of new moneys from the feds: $385 million. This was in doubt because the law was supposed to have been implemented by July 1. It wasn’t.
Well, the feds have relented and are giving us the bucks even so. This may well result from Mitt Romney’s closeness to HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt, who weighed in on the negotiations for the new law on Mitt’s behalf. Ted Kennedy was also a major player in getting permission for the new law (the Medicaid waiver) in the first place as well. I suspect this was never really in doubt after the bill got passed, but it’s good to get confirmation anyway. We’re going to need that money.
Please share widely!
is fundamental reform of our–I repeat OUR–health care system. Our current system of HC financing and delivery is obscenely wasteful, largely dysfunctional and often harmful to patients and families.
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The corporate market-driven structures that drive this system are being perpetuated by the recent reforms contained in the Chapter 58 “Romney-Care Individual Mandate” law. The medicaid expansions contained in the law are good in that they will help meet urgent unmet needs, but this approach to reform is not sustainable nor is it all that sensible because it does not address the underlying causes and solutions to the crisis.
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So, yes, I’ll grant you that we do need the federal money but let’s not settle for a tacit acceptance of the wasteful and dysfuntional system that we have before us.
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We cannot afford, for monetary and for humanitarian reasons, not to enact a truly universal coverage and equitably financed health care system. Uninsurance is the 3rd leading cause of death for persons aged 55 to 64 in the Commonwealth. That’s on all of us. (see IOM Report “Consequences of Uninsurance” and Families USA for state breakdown data).
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For more details on the failings of the Chapter 58 reform law, see the Healthy Blog post on GBIO “Forward” article and read through to the comment by Alice Rothchild, MD.
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Last but not least, to be part of the solution (no magic bullet but it will get us all on the right path with the legal and political tools to stay the course–yech, who do I sound like saying that?!), sign on to support the Citizens’ Health Care Amendment Campaign at http://www.HealthCar…
Charley,
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I don’t pretend to know as much about our healthcare system as you and many of the other posters here do, but I can tell you something you already know: it’s broken, and the recent bill will not fix the problems.
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It’s a step in the right direction (at least I hope it is, depending on how the details are worked out), but it’s only a baby step, from what I can tell.
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And I think the $385 mil that the Feds have used to extort us (or is it people in Mass who have raised the ugly spectre of no Federal funds to push their vision of “reform”?) is much ado about very little.
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Correct me if I’ve got the math wrong, but as I understand it the money figure represents two years of federal funding, and if you divide it by 6 million Mass residents, that works out to about $32 per person per year. Now, I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t even pay a small fraction of one month of medical insurance for me. So, I can’t imagine it’s going to do much to provide quality healthcare for all the people in this state who can’t afford insurance. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not sneezing (so to speak) at $385 million being spent on healthcare in this state. I’d just like to point out that it’s but a drop in the bucket, and probably doesn’t deserve all the hoopla it’s gotten, especially if it led us to implement policies that might end up wasting more than that.
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I’m in over my head here, but my guess is that streamlining recordkeeping and other reforms would save a lot more than $385 million.
after all, its Medicaid money. Of the 6,000,000 MA residents, about a million are served by a Medicaid program. So, you’re looking at closer to $200 per person on Medicaid per year.
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Of course, this is all mental masturbation since state budget might or might not cover the slack, making the $385 mil possibly look more like a contribution to the general coffers.
As stomv says, and if I understand correctly, the $385 million goes towards expanding MA’s health coverage through Masshealth. As far as I’m concerned, that’s one of the unqualified good things about the new health care bill. If you have health care through your employer, this money won’t affect you at all. In fact, the new law in total may not affect you much.
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The issue of cost was punted on pretty hard in the new law. I’m told there will be some new proposals out later this year, many dealing with moving towards a comprehensive concept of health care, as opposed to the piecemeal (and therefore inefficient, failure-rewarding) system we have now. Stay tuned.
“I’m told there will be some new proposals out later this year, many dealing with moving towards a comprehensive concept of health care, as opposed to the piecemeal (and therefore inefficient, failure-rewarding) system we have now. Stay tuned.”
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Please tell me if somehow I have not communicated clearly enough or if there is some other reason why you would imply, with your above comment, that the Health Care Constitutional Amendment Campaign does not exist or that it is not, as you put it “a new proposal dealing with moving towards a comprehensive concept of health care, as opposed to the piecemeal (and therefore inefficient, failure-rewarding) system we have now”. It really pisses me off that you seem to be, along with the Boston Globe and Herald, blacklisting this proposal for fundamental health system reform. (FYI the Glob and Herald each make millions$$$ in advertising revenue in the current market-driven HC system)
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A large number of very dedicated, very smart people created this proposal over 3 years ago, starting with writing the amendment language and submitting it to the state for certicfication as a Constitutional Amendment on August 13, 2006. We then set about building a website, a statewide campaign, and so on. http://www.HealthCar…
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Then over 70,000 registered voters signed the petitions to move it on to the legislature for 2 consecutive ConCon votes where it needs to get only 50 YES votes to then be place on the next statewide ballot for voter approval.
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One health reform policy plan that would meet all the standards set forth in the amendment language is the Mass. Health Care Trust Bill, found at http://www.MassCare….
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Charley, I would appreciate the favor of a reply from you about this. Thanks.