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Governor Deval Patrick: Thank you all for coming this morning, we've had a robust conversation
about our successes and some of the challenges that lie ahead
in healthcare reform and how to sustain the success that we have had
over the last six years. You see the people here today, the range of people, we come from
governorment and business, from community groups and non-profits, from
hospitals, community health centers, insurance companies, unions,
advocacy groups, of a variety of kind, a great diversity of opinion in this room on almost
everything. But we are joined today, just as we were in 2006, and
just as we have been since 2006, because we all believe that health
is a public good and that everyone deserves access to affordable high-quality care. Thanks
to the law signed into effect in this building in 2006, we are
closer to that idea in Massachusetts than anywhere else in America.
That's a good thing and we all are here very, very proud of it. By any measure, health care
reform has been a success in Massachusetts. We have virtually
universal coverage today, businesses have embraced the law, preventive
care is up, emergency room visits are down and people are healthier. And all of this
with about a 1% impact on state spending and a nation leading drop in
the growth of health care premiums. Most important of all, I've met
the people whose lives have been changed or improved on account of health care reform
in Massachusetts, and the access to healthcare that this reform has
made possible. If policy matters most at the point where it actually
touches people, this policy matters a great deal and is worth celebrating. Health care
reform is working in Massachusetts. Today is about making--about
acknowledging a real difference being made in people's lives. It's
about confronting a challenging problem and finding a real solution and working together
to accomplish that solution. There is more work to do, of course,
the cost of health care is a national challenge and while we're
making much progress on that front, as well, we have more to do. We must also be open to
new technology and payment methods to continually improve the
quality of care. We're tackling these challenges next with the
help from tools from the Afffordable Care Act and all of the people in this room. But
today is about celebrating a really great success, and I'm
proud to be here with those who were at the framing and those who
have been with us to continue to refine and improve health care reform in the last six
years.
Mona Rudolph: Around 2005, after years of working as an accountant, I was laid off.
With the loss of my job I also lost my health insurance. For a while
that seemed okay, because I was perfectly healthy and had been
all along. But around 2006 my health went downhill. It started with my knee hurting
like crazy from tendonitis, then I needed to go to the doctor. And fortunately
for me, it was around the same time that health care reform
was passed and I was able to get insurance quickly and [cough] excuse me, and a doctor
was able to see me immediately. And that was a real blessing
for me because pretty soon after that I was diagnosed with a type of
lupus. And it didn't stop there. A couple of years later my family history caught up
with me and I was diagnosed with high blood pressure, then diabetes, and
then coronary artery disease. I can't tell you how great the doctors
and the caregivers at Joseph Smith Community Health Center have been to me. They really
have given me top notch care. I am so grateful, so, so grateful to
have health care. If it were not for the state's health care I would
be like what my grandmother would say - I would be up the creek without a paddle. So
I thank God for health care in Massachusetts.
Gary Gottlieb: Six years is a short time for so much accomplishment. It's not just a matter
of leading and being able to appreciate the importance of affordable
health care access as true tools of ensuring social justice,
but it's the ability to stewart and to sustain that commitment and that leadership. The Governor
and Secretary Bigby, Senate President Murray, Speaker DeLeo,
have all focused on making certain that we can hold this
together in the context of changing economic times and the challenges related to health
care costs. The business community, organized labor, the consumer
and advocacy community have all worked together. And that
working together will create for us true solutions around being able to maintain and improve
quality and at the same time control costs as we've started to
in this marketplace overall. The ingenuity of the payers, frankly,
work together with us and our ability to re-open our contracts, and to reduce the level of
increase to the tune of $345 million over four years and to embrace
new approaches to payment that hopefully will allow us to take
care of the whole person and move from an illness-care system to a health care system
where we can essentially attenuate the catastrophic costs that are
associated with a fragmented system and move forward in a way in which
we can embrace as five major systems already have as pioneer affordable care organizations
and two more that were named affordable care organizations in this
state yesterday, a new approach to being able to think through
how we take care of people over a lifetime and not just over an episode of care.
Robert Travaglini: I said to the Governor earlier this morning that very rarely does
an opportunity present itself to those of us who occupy elective
office while we're serving, and it's a real game changer. It truly
can change the lives of hundreds of thousands of people that you're never going to have
a conversation with, and yet you know deep down inside that the
actions that you take if you get it right will truly be the difference
in their lives. That was the opportunity that presented itself back in 2005. As some of
you may recall we had just done stem cell research, we had just
commenced with the Constitutional Convention on same sex marriage and
we were dealing with first in the nation themes, so this seemed to be the logical next phase
in our legislative agenda. Originally what brought everybody
to the table was fear and uncertainty, but as this issue gained
traction and brought people to the table it provided an opportunity to work intimately
with Senator Ted Kennedy, Governor Mitt Romney, my colleague
Sal DeMasi, colleagues in the House and the Senate and we realized
we were onto something, it was starting to come together.