State overhaul fears, rising costs, medical school expansions

The New York Times: "The General Assembly became the first state legislature to approve a measure that bucks any effort by President Obama and Congress to carry out a national health care overhaul in individual states." Numerous Democrats joined the Republican majority to support the measure 80-17 in the House of Delegates (3/10).

Boston Herald: "A staunchly pro-free enterprise business group yesterday embraced price controls for the state's health-care industry, saying sykrocketing medical expenses have reached a 'crisis point' that's financially crushing small businesses." Associated Industries of Massachusetts president Richard Lord said Gov. Deval Patrick's plan "didn't go after medical expenses of hospitals, doctors, clinics and other providers as early and as aggressively as the administration is now going after insurers." He echoed insurance industry talking points that these providers' fees are the underlying reason for rising insurance costs (Fitzgerald, 3/11).

The (Waterbury, Conn.) Republican-American: "Universities across the country are expanding their medical programs or starting new programs from scratch to fill the growing gap between supply and demand for physicians." For instance, "Quinnipiac University announced plans this year to create a new medical school that it hopes will churn out a new batch of primary-care physicians every year" (Shugarts, 3/11).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.