State Update

MMS Fights for Health Access and Comprehensive Reform

On September 29, MMS President Alan M. Harvey, M.D., M.B.A., paid a return visit to the State House’s cavernous Gardner Auditorium to make the case for universal access to health care and comprehensive reforms to the health care system. The occasion was a legislative hearing on Governor Romney’s health insurance reform proposals. Dr. Harvey testified on June 8 regarding universal access proposals offered by Senate President Robert Travaglini and by the Affordable Care Today (ACT) coalition.

The Governor, the Senate President, and House Speaker Sal DiMasi have all espoused the cause of expanding coverage to the more than 500,000 Massachusetts residents currently without health insurance. The hearing was convened by the Joint Committee on Financial Services and the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing.

At the hearing, Dr. Harvey reiterated his call for the Legislature to join the MMS in endorsing the universal coverage principles of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) as key criteria for reviewing any health access proposals. The IOM recommends that coverage be universal, continuous, affordable, and sustainable.

Dr. Harvey also urged the lawmakers to resolve some of the broader issues facing the health care delivery system, such as the inadequacy of Medicaid reimbursement. "Without a strong infrastructure of health care providers, the enactment of health insurance itself could prove to be a hollow victory," said Dr. Harvey.

In addition to the legislative proposals on the table, the ACT coalition is gathering signatures to place a voter initiative on the ballot in November 2006. The ballot initiative would reflect much of the ACT legislation -- broadening Medicaid eligibility and utilizing an "employer mandate" to provide coverage. The Governor’s proposal aims to create more affordable insurance products and an “individual mandate” on patients who can afford to purchase insurance to do so. Sen. Travaglini’s plan avoids mandates; it would improve insurance products and charge employers who don’t offer coverage when their employees use the "free care pool."

The two committees that heard from Dr. Harvey will now digest the data and plan to release legislation of their own by early November.

The Society’s Task Force on Universal Access is also moving forward in developing recommendations for the MMS House of Delegates as to the type of initiative we should endorse. Former MMS President Jack Evjy, M.D., and MMS President-Elect Kenneth Peelle, M.D., lead the task force.

– Steve Shestakofsky