Health-care reform: Massachusetts tries to crack the code on rising costs

Massachusetts was first in the US to pass health-care reform that included an individual mandate to buy insurance. Now it aims to be the first to control costs. Will its plan, approved Tuesday, work?

By Mike Eckel,?Contributor / July 31, 2012

Massachusetts returned to the vanguard of the health-care debate six years after its landmark law, with the state legislature on Tuesday backing a first-in-the-nation plan that aims to slow spiraling health costs.

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The plan is the next chapter in the Bay State?s reform efforts, following the 2006 landmark law pushed by then-Gov. Mitt Romney that served as the basis for President Obama?s Affordable Care Act. Among other things, the Massachusetts law introduced the individual mandate ? the requirement that all residents get insurance or face tax penalties. The US Supreme Court upheld the federal law in June.

While the Massachusetts law expanded insurance coverage, it did little to solve the problem of rising costs, which have climbed markedly in recent years, rising on average 6.4 percent a year in the state. Per capita health spending in Massachusetts is about 15 percent higher than the rest of the nation. By comparison, national health costs have risen about 6.5 percent on average since 1991.

The bill that passed both the House and the Senate Tuesday, and that is likely to be signed Gov. Deval Patrick (D), tries to change that.

?It?s an interesting bill for the assumptions [the lawmakers] make. But they?re making a lot of assumptions about how fast can we get to these points,? says William Fields, a private health-care consultant. ?What path are we really starting to lead ourselves are down? At the end of the day, where are we going to go with this? Are we going to be cutting-edge, or are the costs going to go so low that we lose all innovative aspects of our system??

The 349-page plan, dubbed Health Reform 2.0 in some circles, is forecast to save $200 billion over 15 years, by tying the growth in health-care costs to the growth in the state economy.

?The truth is there are some pretty lofty, ambitious goals in the legislation. The real efforts will come with the implementation,? says Amy Whitcomb Slemmer, executive director of the advocacy group Health Care For All. ?Savings will come because there will be fewer redundant [medical] tests and fewer unnecessary [patient] visits.?

Negotiators from the House and Senate, who had struggled for months to reconcile the chambers? separate bills, opted to strip out the more controversial measures, such as a luxury tax on hospitals that provide premium services.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/75v-SfPSLz8/Health-care-reform-Massachusetts-tries-to-crack-the-code-on-rising-costs

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