Former CMS Administrator Donald Berwick, MD, penned an op-ed for the Boston Globe, saying Massachusetts should finish the reform it started by passing stringent legislation to reduce healthcare costs.
Dr. Berwick called the legislation a "necessary sequel" to Massachusetts' 2006 law that required nearly everyone to have health insurance. He said bills from the state House and Senate have missed a bold goal, proposed by the Associated Industries of Massachusetts and the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization last month. That goal was to limit the growth of healthcare costs by 2 percentage points less than the overall economic growth rate.
So far, the House bill limits healthcare cost's growth rate to the growth rate of the Massachusetts economy, effective now. Beginning in 2016, the healthcare growth rate would be capped to 0.5 percentage points lower than the overall economic growth rate.
Dr. Berwick call's the Senate's proposal "less ambitious," as it would set a limit of 0.5 percent above economic growth until 2016, and then equal to it after that.
"The more ambitious AIM, GBIO and House proposals are on the right track; healthcare can and should begin to return money to other uses, starting now," Dr. Berwick wrote. He said providers are sounding alarms that too severe a goal will harm patient care, when it is really healthcare waste, or unnecessary overtreatment, that "helps no patient at all," according to the op-ed.
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Dr. Berwick called the legislation a "necessary sequel" to Massachusetts' 2006 law that required nearly everyone to have health insurance. He said bills from the state House and Senate have missed a bold goal, proposed by the Associated Industries of Massachusetts and the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization last month. That goal was to limit the growth of healthcare costs by 2 percentage points less than the overall economic growth rate.
So far, the House bill limits healthcare cost's growth rate to the growth rate of the Massachusetts economy, effective now. Beginning in 2016, the healthcare growth rate would be capped to 0.5 percentage points lower than the overall economic growth rate.
Dr. Berwick call's the Senate's proposal "less ambitious," as it would set a limit of 0.5 percent above economic growth until 2016, and then equal to it after that.
"The more ambitious AIM, GBIO and House proposals are on the right track; healthcare can and should begin to return money to other uses, starting now," Dr. Berwick wrote. He said providers are sounding alarms that too severe a goal will harm patient care, when it is really healthcare waste, or unnecessary overtreatment, that "helps no patient at all," according to the op-ed.
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