NewsNight with Jim Braude is an evening news program on New England Cable News and will devote the Monday Jan. 29 show at 7pm to an update on implementation of the MA health reform plan known as Chapter 58. There should be a video of the show available online afterwards, too.
Scheduled guests include Senator Richard Moore (Health Care Finance Committee Co-Chair and as detailed in this newspaper article a legislator who was instrumental in killing the citizen’s Health Care Constitutional Amendment – the 4 year project supported by the Alliance and 130 other groups across the state), Cheri Andes from the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, John McDonough of Health Care For All, and Mary Lou Buyse of the MA Association of Health Plans.
Each panelist has a long and deep history of supporting the Chapter 58 plan as it is written so do not expect to hear criticism of the plan’s major elements such as the very notion of having a private insurance mandate without standards and accountability for how health insurance dollars are spent.
You should know that deep concerns and criticism about major parts of the plan and its ability to actually work does exist throughout the state, including mine and at many health advocacy organizations. These concerns are coupled with ongoing efforts to advance alternative reforms that could replace the flaws inherent in the current Chapter 58 law. Stay tuned for updates on this work.
1) re: Senator Richard Moore, Health Care Finance Committee Co-Chair and as detailed in this newspaper article a legislator who was instrumental in killing the citizen’s Health Care Constitutional Amendment
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2) re: deep concerns and criticism about major parts of the plan and its ability to actually work does exist throughout the state at many levels, including the Alliance to Defend Health Care and many other health advocacy organizations.
Interesting videos.
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These folks are not looking so bright and cheery… I think that they’re beginning to recognize what happens when lovely wishes hit fiscal reality. It’s hard to see how adding yet another layer of bureaucracy will somehow reduce costs – let alone halve them, as promised.
John McDonough suggested that the Connector will now act as a negotiator on behalf of the consumers affected by the personal mandate.
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BTW, of the three folks on the video, GBIO’s Cheri Andes and HCFA’s John McDonough have done massive amounts of work with the uninsured, and have actual hard numbers to point to of people who have been helped by their work, as John pointed out. Between them was a lobbyist for the insurance industry. So I wouldn’t lump them all together.
I don’t doubt that Andes and McDonough have worked earnestly and diligently to help insure more people, and I absolutely applaud their efforts – but it may be time for them to recognize that their present efforts for RomneyCare are counterproductive to moving forward to what is likely to actually work, and what The People have asked for the opportunity to vote on.
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1. This plan has drifted from $200 per month for a decent plan to $380 per month with a $2,000 deductable. This is somewhere between ill-conceived and bait-and-switch.
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2. “John McDonough suggested that the Connector will now act as a negotiator on behalf of the consumers affected by the personal mandate.” Weren’t they supposed to do this before? It doesn’t require a salary of $100,000+ a year to make some calls and get some prices. If it’s $380 a month now, and nobody on the other side of the table is making a peep, I’m guessing that it’s not going to change very much in the near future. Anyone want to put $10 on whether it’ll drop below $320 and remain ‘creditable’?
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3. Whereas it’s highly unlikely that this RomneyCare scheme can get costs to anywhere near where promised, there is a way that is highly likely to get the cost down to under $300 per person (probably way under $300 for the group that needs insurance, who are all under 65), a way that has cut costs AND improved outcomes every single time it’s been tried – single-payer.
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OK, so we’ll get rid of the private insurers and the 25% cut that they take on our health care expenses – why do we need to protect this group – particularly when we refuse to protect the average Joe and Jane from getting their job outsourced to $2-a-day labor?
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4. It cannot be forgotten that The People’s request for a ballot on the single-payer issue was denied by the Legislature. This is galling and blatantly illegal. Thwarting the law, and the will of The People, is the antithesis of government.