Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

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  2. Dear WBUR staff – thank you for considering my question to Governor Patrick.

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    The MA health reform plan, Chapter 58, does help the poor to get subsidized insurance coverage in the short term which is a good thing, but isn’t it true that using an individual mandate approach willfully sidesteps an underlying issue of health system reform: continuing to rely on the wastefully expensive market-driven approach for health insurance coverage?

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    This leads to my primany question: Do you as our Governor want to continue to treat health insurance as a commodity that is sold in a private market-driven system or do think that we as a Commonwealth ought to treat it as a public good, along the lines of public health programs and fire and police services?

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    A couple related points of interest:
    1) A hundred years ago if a person did not purchase fire insurance then their house would be allowed to burn down–seems pretty uncivilized (and stupid) doesn’t it?  i think we will look back and view our current treatment of health insurance in a similar way-pretty darn uncivilized.

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    2) And just because a Governor, be it Romney or Schwarzennegger, says a reform plan is universal does not make it so.  Both of these plans will fail over time because they build on our expensive private market driven system where corporate profits take precedence over people’s health.  My belief which is shared by many other health professionals is that we must create a health care system that treats health insurance as a public good rather than as a private commodity. 

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    Thank you for your consideration of this question and related remarks.

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    fyi
    I am a nurse who has worked with the poor for most of my 15 year career and who has given much of the past 4 years of my life to the citizens health care constitutional amendment.

    • i don’t think your question was long enough.  it would only have taken 10 minutes to read.  usually they like listener questions that take more like 15 minutes of airtime. 

      • actually, i didn’t expect them to read every word. just some edited version of these if I was lucky:

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        The MA health reform plan, Chapter 58, does help the poor to get subsidized insurance coverage in the short term which is a good thing, but isn’t it true that using an individual mandate approach willfully sidesteps an underlying issue of health system reform: continuing to rely on the wastefully expensive market-driven approach for health insurance coverage?

        This leads to my primary question: Do you as our Governor want to continue to treat health insurance as a commodity that is sold in a private market-driven system or do think that we as a Commonwealth ought to treat it as a public good, along the lines of public health programs and fire and police services?

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        fyi the “related points” were to educate the question screeners, and for future WBUR research and discussions on the topic of health system reform. but thanks again for your feedback!

    • AnnEm, pay no attention to GGW’s sarcasm.

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      Here, let me reword your question so it’s more succinct:

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      Governor Patrick, when you were elected did you bring with you a secret bag of cash, and I’m talking billions, so that we can have cheap and universal health care in Massachusetts?

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      That should do it. Airtime guaranteed!

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      ciao!

      • the current “health insurance is a market/profit-driven commodity” approach is what’s bankrupting our state and its residents (and the country).  you seemed smarter than to fall so hard for the pocketbook scare tactics of the insurance industry…  ciao for now!

  3. The Gov did seem to suggest that he was going to help folks over 65 with local property taxes — that he’d expand the “Circuit Breaker Tax Credit.” 

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    What’s that? 

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    Evidently it is “a state income tax credit for certain Massachusetts residents age 65 or older who paid rent or real estate taxes during the tax year. Even though the credit is based on property taxes, it is the state government, not the city or town, that pays the credit.”

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    Props to whomever on his team thought of that. 

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    They can pump a few million into the program and then answer every question about prop taxes with “Well, we already helped seniors with their prop taxes….long term, we’ll…”

  4. his response to my civic engagement suggestions.  And the fact that he remembered who I was, his recall is amazing.  I think the biggest concern now, he said was equipping the Executive  Offices with proper technology to accomplish the Civic Engagement vision and the transparency of his Administration.

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    I firmly believe after doing this for decades that if the right persons are in place, as volunteers, there are endless resources for Gov. Patrick and his staff to gather ways to make Massachusetts better and keep us closer to how the state is run successfully.

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    I was happy to see the wide range subjects that were covered also…and that Bob Oakes mentioned Deval’s (oops, Gov. Patrick’s, – the hardest thing to do, not to call him Deval) involvement with the blogs. I’m sure that they won’t go away tomorrow, but the budget must take priority, of course   .  

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