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“The issue that I have has to do with health insurance. And health insurance for my wife
and I is our single largest expense by far. Health insurance is costing us between $22-24,000
a year for two of us.” “(Governor off-screen) Do you get health
insurance through work?” “No. No, I was self-employed, I’m an acupuncturist
and last year I had a health problem so this year I’m taking a year off so you know it’s
very expensive. Now the governor before you passed mandatory universal health care in
Massachusetts. And that’s good. The problem is that when I called the State to find out
about that health insurance, the cost of that health insurance was more expensive than the
health insurance that I could get through my local chamber. And whoever’s negotiating
with these insurance companies feels to me like their on the take, because when you take
a look at the sheer number of people that must be involved in this and how could it
possible not get a better deal than what you’re getting through the chamber of commerce?”
“Allen, are you talking about Commonwealth Care, the subsidized programs?”
“I’m talking about if you try to get Harvard Pilgrim, if you try to get any of the things
through the state, it’s more expensive getting it through the state than it is getting it
through your local chamber of commerce. And I’m just saying that I just really, I’m
not here to upset anybody, I really hope that you can take it seriously as the President
seems to be now putting it on the front burner that this is a devastating expense for the
everyday person.” “Thank you for the question and Allen and
just so everybody knows what Allen’s talking about, he’s not talking about GIC because
he wouldn’t qualify for GIC. You’re talking about Commonwealth Care which is the tier
of sometimes subsidized, maybe not for you, but sometimes subsidized it’s a whole range
of programs that are negotiated that are negotiated by the state and they are all from the private
market. Part of what’s wacky about this is system is that the same insurance who may
have offered the product you were quoted, is offering a product to the chamber at a
different price. Well sometimes lower, in your case lower, sometimes higher; it’s
really all over the place. One of the things around, and by the way, health care costs
are a serious problem whether or not we have universal coverage. That’s a very important
point for people to understand. You hear sometimes in the national debate, and everybody’s
looking at Massachusetts because we are further along than anybody else, 97 percent of the
people in Massachusetts have health insurance today, there’s not another state in the
country who can touch us in terms of coverage. But health insurance costs have been going
up at double digits, year over year, even in the places that don’t have universal
coverage. There’s an initiative now and the Senate President really showed the leadership
on this on a bill around cost-containment last year; something called the Payment Reform
Commission which is coming out with their recommendations I think at the end of this
month or the beginning of next. And this may actually affect you, I’d be interested in
what you think about it but it’s moving away from the fee for service, how should
I describe it, custom and moving toward a global payment approach. Basically, I’ve
been sick, you’ve been assigned to help me get better, you get paid to get me better,
now you figure out what tests you need, what hospitalization, how long the hospitalization
and all that, but you get one payment. You the medical professional, you get one payment.
And there’s some great promise, there also promise on getting flexibility on the Medicare
side like we have on the Medicaid side, I mean all that’s technical gobbledygook for
most people, but you’re right we’ve got to fix this.”