JACK CONNORS JR.
Use $400m windfall on health careGOVERNOR Romney has proposed that the $400 million windfall in state revenues be returned to the taxpayers in the form of tax cuts.
I admire Romney, but must speak out against his proposal. There are too many unaddressed needs in health care, public education, and social services that cannot be ignored. Consider health care. For the past 12 years, I have been involved as a volunteer in health care, as a trustee and then as chairman of the board of Brigham and Women's Hospital, and for the last eight years as chairman of the board of Partners HealthCare, the largest nongovernment employer in Massachusetts with approximately 33,000 employees. Partners HealthCare includes familiar names: Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Newton Wellesley Hospital, Faulkner Hospital, North Shore Medical Center, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, and McLean Hospital. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is among our largest customers in the form of Medicaid reimbursement. As a younger trustee, I can remember going to Beacon Hill with others and fighting for increased government reimbursement rates from the then 72 cents on the dollar to closer to 100 cents. We were all unsuccessful. During the Romney years, things have only gotten worse. Medicaid reimbursement today in our hospitals averages closer to 60 cents on the dollar and we are in the unenviable position of being the only product or service that the state government buys for less than it really costs. The state has never successfully gone to the Ford Motor Company to buy police cars and told them they would only give them 60 percent of the cost. The hospitals get punished because doctors have taken an oath never to turn anyone away because of an inability to pay. In the past several years, the governor and his staff have claimed they couldn't improve the reimbursement because they didn't have the money. Now they have the money, and now it's time to play fair and meet our obligations. This is not about helping a few hospitals improve their profitability that will allow them to invest in information systems that will make the patient's experience safer and more satisfying. It's not about our ability to provide more nursing care. It's about an economic reality that is much broader. Health care is among the largest sources of employment in the Commonwealth. It used to be that textiles were the economic engine and then it was computer hardware (remember Digital, Wang, and Data General?) and more recently it was software. Today, it is health care and life sciences. And unlike those other industries, health care providers are inclined to want to stay here. Textiles went south for cheaper labor and then eventually to the Far East for even cheaper labor. I doubt many of the citizens of Massachusetts would go to South Carolina or Singapore to get their health care. Because of our terrific medical schools, we attract the best medical students from around the world. Many elect to stay here because they fall in love with the state. This year the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will spend millions of dollars trying to attract new industry to the state. It would be much more efficient and successful if the governor would recognize that the greatest opportunity for economic development lies in nurturing what is already here by paying a fair and reasonable reimbursement for health care. Since the inception of the Harvard Medical School over 200 years ago, those who came before us have designed and implemented the best health care/life sciences community in the world. And those who lead all of it today are among the best, the brightest and the most thoughtful in the world. Think of it as a garden. People come from all over the world for their care or to see our garden. We have plenty of great doctors or great flowers. We don't need anything now but a little sunshine and water, otherwise known as reasonable reimbursement, and the garden will flourish. The governor can take the credit, and everyone will be happy. Or we could give every man, woman, and child $100 and watch what has been built over 200 years struggle for survival.
Jack Connors Jr. is chairman of Partners HealthCare System Inc. and chairman of Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos Inc. © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
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