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(Thanks for all you've been doing, Senator Kerry. -Charley
Bumped. - promoted by David)
Heading home to Boston this morning but wanted to circle back about a huge step forward for Massachusetts in the new health care bill - with a "just the facts" outline here - and if I sound like I'm down in the weeds, that's because, well, I'm down in the weeds - this has been a process I've been working on for a long time now, both on the Finance Committee and on the phone with the White House and our folks in Massachusetts -
So, forget the rhetoric, and enough with the misdirection and talking points we're inundated with on a daily basis -- the reality is really very simple:
This bill makes the Massachusetts health care system much, much stronger.
It strengthens Massachusetts' health insurance reforms, brings new federal subsidies into the state, and gives huge benefits to the people and businesses of Massachusetts. |
| Here's just one example: the health reform bill will provide $4.1 billion in premium tax credits and cost-sharing tax credits for residents in Massachusetts from 2014 to 2019 to purchase private health insurance. Currently, Massachusetts spends about $88 million annually to provide subsidized coverage to enrollees in Commonwealth Choice. The new federal subsidies to 254,000 residents should lessen the amount of subsidies that need to be provided by the state.
The federal bill also strengthens the Commonwealth Connector's power to pressure and negotiate with insurance companies for the best rates. Already, the Connector's power to do that has kept the increase in premium cost in Massachusetts well below the national average. In fact, the average yearly premium cost in the individual market actually fell - from $8,537 at the end of 2006 to $5,143 in mid-2009. The federal bill allows the Connector to apply those principles even more broadly. I worked with my friend Harry Reid to make sure the Connector could negotiate with plans for lower bids, encourage plans to form select networks, and exclude plans that do not offer good value and cost-effectiveness.
This list goes on and on. I have a longer list on my website that you can read by clicking on this link to a PDF, but here are some major areas that are helped with a few examples on how they're helped:
• Medicaid/Medicare: The bill ends a system of Medicare payments that discriminated against Massachusetts hospitals, brings in $2 billion of federal aid for our Medicaid system over the next 10 years, closes the Medicare "doughnut hole" for prescription drug coverage, strengthens Medicare Advantage, provides free preventative care for Medicare recipients, and supports long-term home and community-based health care across the board.
• Exchanges/Subsidies: In addition to what I mentioned earlier about the Connector and the new federal subsidies, the bill also preserves the Connector as the exclusive exchange in the state, lowers premiums for Massachusetts residents, and provides more generous eligibility for federal premium subsidies by raising the limit from 300% of poverty level to 400%.
This bill also helps Massachusetts by reforming many areas of the health care system. It invests in primary health care, alleviating a critical shortage of providers in that area. The funding for community health centers will be dramatically expanded, helping the 52 community health centers in the state that provide high quality health care to those in need regardless of their ability to pay. It maintains the strong consumer protection we have in Massachusetts, brings $100 million annually into the state to pay for Children's Health Insurance Program ... really, there are too many things to list all the ways this bill increases the quality of our healthcare system and starts to control the costs in the system.
Mitt Romney is contorting himself into a pretzel trying to pretend it's not the case, but in many ways, the reformed system envisioned in our bill builds on and extends the model here in Massachusetts. And not if, but when it's passed, it will strengthen what we do here in Massachusetts, and it will help tens of millions of people across the country get access to quality health care.
So - let's get on with it. |
