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The issue: Healthcare

Romney's successor
to inherit new healthcare law

(By Liz Kowalczyk, Globe Staff, 8/29/06)

on the agenda  Points of view: Healthcare Compare the candidates' positions through a Globe Q&A

Jump to:  Healey   |    Mihos   |   Patrick   |   Ross

Healey let her boss, Gov. Mitt Romney, a likely presidential candidate, do most of the talking during the fight over the state's new universal healthcare bill. She has said that like Romney she opposes the law's $295-per-employee annual charge on larger businesses that don't offer health benefits, though she originally called it only a "nominal" burden. Romney vetoed the provision, saying the fee wasn't needed and would hurt businesses. He was overridden by the Legislature.

In two other recent health-related controversies Healey has taken a different, less conservative stand than Romney. In February she said she favors embryonic stem cell research, the subject of a bill that Romney unsuccessfully vetoed last year. In July 2005, Healey broke with Romney to support a bill expanding access to emergency contraception. Romney vetoed the measure, and again was overridden by the Democratic-controlled Legislature.

Healey has also said she believes cities and towns need healthcare reform to help contain mounting employee insurance costs, a key factor in local property tax hikes.

This past year, Massachusetts enacted Health Care for All, a first-of-a-kind law requiring all Massachusetts residents to have health insurance. If elected, Mihos says he will keep a close eye on the law to determine whether it's becoming unaffordable. Mihos cites four factors in the rising cost of healthcare: costly, cumbersome administrative procedures, unnecessary testing and medical procedures, fraud, and lack of preventative care. To fight these factors, Mihos says he'll create one commission to prepare recommendations for reducing the administrative burdens on hospitals and doctors, another commission to recommend standard testing protocols for treatment and protocols for decisions on surgery, and a third commission assess risk areas for fraud. Mihos wants to reduce the administrative burdens on hospitals and doctors. He says he'll establish a commission that will be made up of administrative efficiency, computer, software experts, and hospital administrators who can identify how to change the system to make it user friendly, automated, and cost effective. Mihos and his running mate, John Sullivan, plan to aggressively pursue lowering health insurance costs for employees of cities and towns. Their proposal allows local municipalities at their option to join the state’s health insurance plan. Any city or town with concurrence of a municipal union can join the program and realize the savings from bulk purchasing. The proposal would not require coalition bargaining and the cost sharing between the city or town and the union would be negotiated at the local level.

Patrick was an early supporter of a bill proposed by Affordable Healthcare Today (ACT) that served as the basis for the recently approved universal healthcare law. The ACT bill would have spent more public money, taxed businesses more, and extended subsidized coverage further up the income ladder then the bill eventually approved by the Legislature. He supports the controversial $295 per worker, per year charge on larger employers who don't offer health benefits, but says there is no need to raise additional revenue "until we see how this works and what costs we can take out."

"I see health care as a common good -- like clean air, safe streets, and effective education -- and so I believe that government has a role to play in assuring that the conditions exist for the health care system we all want," Patrick says.

Patrick has issued a healthcare white paper with a number of proposals, including having the state guarantee catastrophic health care coverage for residents not already covered by Medicare or Medicaid. He also vowed to use the bulk-purchasing power of the state to reduce the cost of prescription drugs. He has said purchasing drugs in Canada should be considered, but hasn't explicitly endorsed the approach.

Patrick supports embryonic stem-cell research and in his first policy address of the campaign suggested a bond measure, similar to one passed in California, to help fund stem-cell science.

The Green-Rainbow Party maintains that the only just solution to the healthcare crisis is universal healthcare provided under a single-payer system of insurance - a publicly financed healthcare system that is comprehensive in both coverage and in care. The Green-Rainbow Party states that a universal healthcare plan must guarantee equal coverage to all, regardless of any status, economic or otherwise.

Ross asserts that the legislation signed by Governor Romney on April 12 was devised by politicians, health insurers, and large hospitals, which spent $7.5 million on lobbying to influence the process and outcome in their own favor. Ross says this new law is a major setback for the people of Massachusetts, and the Commonwealth must adopt a fundamental concept: that access to healthcare is not a requirement- it is a human right.