Massachusetts Gov.-Elect Patrick Should Focus On Implementation Of New Health Insurance Law, Opinion Piece Says

Massachusetts Gov.-elect Deval Patrick (D) “would be wise to take the long view” in implementing the state’s new health insurance law, Charles Baker, president and CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, writes in a Boston Globe opinion piece. According to Baker, Patrick’s “short list” of health care initiatives that should be in place by the end of his first term includes those “that enhance affordability, improve quality and increase coverage.” Baker writes that Patrick should fill positions on the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority with individuals “who share your expectations for health care and determine, with them, how your administration will define success.” He adds that the “ultimate goal” should be “insuring some significant portion of the uninsured by 2010.” According to Baker, if Patrick’s administration reduced the number of uninsured Massachusetts residents from the current 500,000 to 100,000 by 2010, then it “should be able to claim significant success.” Baker says that Patrick “need[s] to understand that the increase in health care costs has a direct, negative impact on the ability of everyone, including the Connector Board, to pay for coverage.” He adds, “Therefore, every debate on health care issues must seriously consider whether a particular policy call makes costs rise, fall or stay the same. And if a given proposal would make health care more expensive, there better be major public benefits to go ahead and do it anyway.” Patrick also should direct his secretary of health and human services — who will chair the Health Care Quality and Cost Council under the new law — to “promot[e] transparency” in health care quality and cost, Baker says (Baker, Boston Globe, 12/4).

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