U.S. health reform should not be modeled on Massachusetts health insurance law, according to report

Mar 23 2009

Efforts to overhaul the U.S. health care system should not be modeled after the 2006 Massachusetts health insurance law because the law does not include cost controls, according to a report released on Tuesday by researchers at the Institute for America's Future, the Boston Herald reports.

Diane Archer, the report's principal author and researcher, said, "It has had some successes, but the Massachusetts model fails to control costs, because it relies only on private insurers." The state currently has the lowest uninsurance rate in the country, but Archer said low rates are not enough. "We've got to control costs, and we've [got] to break the stranglehold that private insurers have on health care costs," she said, adding, "We need alternatives, and we need competition."

Jennifer Kritz, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services, said that state officials are working on ways to control rising costs, including looking at the reserves, endowments and surpluses of health insurers and hospitals. The state also is considering changes to the traditional fee-for-service payment system to provide incentives for efficient and effective care (McConville, Boston Herald, 3/18).

The report is available online.