http://www.boston.com/news/loc...aring_health_premiums/
Governor Deval Patrick yesterday accelerated his administration's efforts to control spiraling statewide healthcare costs, warning that rising premiums threaten to crush families and businesses and doom Massachusetts' groundbreaking experiment with universal insurance.
Patrick said officials are considering using state insurance regulations to block excessive healthcare premiums. He is also summoning leaders of insurance and hospital companies for meetings as soon as this week to ask for their "vigorous cooperation."
In response to stories by the Globe's Spotlight Team about the role of Partners HealthCare and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massa chusetts in driving up costs, Patrick convened a panel of senior administration figures yesterday to coordinate new and existing state cost containment efforts, which he said should produce action by summer. He also said he expects to file new legislation.
"The increases at this rate over time [are] just not sustainable, not for families, not to business, not for government," Patrick said at a news conference after the summit.
Inspector General Gregory W. Sullivan also said he wants providers and insurers to delay signing new contracts until the administration has implemented new, as-yet-undetermined policies to limit premiums.
The Spotlight Team has reported, quoting officials directly involved in the negotiations, that the leaders of Partners and Blue Cross made a deal in 2000 in which Blue Cross significantly boosted its payments to Partners in exchange for Partners' insistence that all other insurers pay at least as much for the care of their members by Partners doctors. That prevented insurance companies from competing on price, and helped to drive up consumer prices statewide. Individual insurance premiums in Massachusetts have risen nearly 9 percent a year since 2000, twice the annual rate increase of the late 1990s.
The Spotlight Team has also reported that Partners hospitals are paid significantly more than other, comparable facilities.
Partners and Blue Cross say they did nothing improper. Both companies contend that payments to hospitals had been too low before the 2000 agreement, and Partners said its CEO promised only to treat all insurers equally.
Both companies also said yesterday that they look forward to participating in Patrick's discussions. Partners spokesman Rich Copp said in a statement that cost increases nationally "have been mirrored almost exactly" in Massachusetts. He also noted that Partners' latest contract with Blue Cross, settled over the summer, "resulted in rate increases well below those experienced in prior years." The contract calls for increases in payments of about 5 to 6 percent a year, roughly equivalent to medical inflation.
Blue Cross CEO Cleve L. Killingsworth Jr. expressed support in a statement for one proposal the administration is considering: reforming the payment system to compensate hospitals for patient outcomes, rather than for the number of procedures or visits.
So these imbeciles pass outrageous mandates driving up the cost of insurance, make everyone purchase this insurance, have the government go bankrupt buying this expensive insurance, and then blames the insurance companies after the fact.
Can we call this experiment a failure yet?
Governor Deval Patrick yesterday accelerated his administration's efforts to control spiraling statewide healthcare costs, warning that rising premiums threaten to crush families and businesses and doom Massachusetts' groundbreaking experiment with universal insurance.
Patrick said officials are considering using state insurance regulations to block excessive healthcare premiums. He is also summoning leaders of insurance and hospital companies for meetings as soon as this week to ask for their "vigorous cooperation."
In response to stories by the Globe's Spotlight Team about the role of Partners HealthCare and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massa chusetts in driving up costs, Patrick convened a panel of senior administration figures yesterday to coordinate new and existing state cost containment efforts, which he said should produce action by summer. He also said he expects to file new legislation.
"The increases at this rate over time [are] just not sustainable, not for families, not to business, not for government," Patrick said at a news conference after the summit.
Inspector General Gregory W. Sullivan also said he wants providers and insurers to delay signing new contracts until the administration has implemented new, as-yet-undetermined policies to limit premiums.
The Spotlight Team has reported, quoting officials directly involved in the negotiations, that the leaders of Partners and Blue Cross made a deal in 2000 in which Blue Cross significantly boosted its payments to Partners in exchange for Partners' insistence that all other insurers pay at least as much for the care of their members by Partners doctors. That prevented insurance companies from competing on price, and helped to drive up consumer prices statewide. Individual insurance premiums in Massachusetts have risen nearly 9 percent a year since 2000, twice the annual rate increase of the late 1990s.
The Spotlight Team has also reported that Partners hospitals are paid significantly more than other, comparable facilities.
Partners and Blue Cross say they did nothing improper. Both companies contend that payments to hospitals had been too low before the 2000 agreement, and Partners said its CEO promised only to treat all insurers equally.
Both companies also said yesterday that they look forward to participating in Patrick's discussions. Partners spokesman Rich Copp said in a statement that cost increases nationally "have been mirrored almost exactly" in Massachusetts. He also noted that Partners' latest contract with Blue Cross, settled over the summer, "resulted in rate increases well below those experienced in prior years." The contract calls for increases in payments of about 5 to 6 percent a year, roughly equivalent to medical inflation.
Blue Cross CEO Cleve L. Killingsworth Jr. expressed support in a statement for one proposal the administration is considering: reforming the payment system to compensate hospitals for patient outcomes, rather than for the number of procedures or visits.
So these imbeciles pass outrageous mandates driving up the cost of insurance, make everyone purchase this insurance, have the government go bankrupt buying this expensive insurance, and then blames the insurance companies after the fact.
Can we call this experiment a failure yet?
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