Massachusetts’ Health Care Reforms Could Provide Lessons On The National Level

By Courtney Ann Jackson- Talk Radio News Service

Policy analysts are taking their cue from Massachusetts’ 2006 health care reforms. Fellows from the Cato Institute and the Heritage Foundation discussed the results of Massachusetts’ reforms Monday, contrasting the state's health care system with the possibility of health care reform on the national scale. All said there are lessons to be learned from the state of Massachusetts and certain problems that cannot be ignored.

Michael Tanner, senior fellow of the Cato Institute said, “Massachusetts’ biggest mistake was that they made universal coverage the loadstone of their reforms. That the whole idea of whether or not this was to be a successful reform was did they get a piece of paper into everybody’s hands that said they had health insurance. They neglected the all important issue of cost containment.”

Turner said Massachusetts could have pursued more consumer involvement and deregulated their health care system. Instead, he said they chose to go with a system that imposed government controls on the individuals, the insurers, and the providers.

Turner believes these are all issues the federal government should take into consideration and learn from Massachusetts’ mistakes.

Greg Scandlen, president and CEO at Consumers for Healthcare Choices asked, “If we reform all [U.S.] health care assistance the way Massachusetts was done, what’s going to happen with all these newly insured people coming in to see a doctor?”

Scandlen brought up the issue of accommodating such a large number of insured people. He said the rate of people going to the emergency room could rise if doctors have a difficult time providing for such large additions of insured patients.

Struggles and victories in Chinese and Indian health issues

“Health Affairs: The Policy Journal of the Health Sphere” held a briefing on health in India and China. China faces a massive obesity epidemic and problems with insurance coverage. India is confronting AIDS. And, both China and India have aging populations.

Philip Musgrove, Deputy Editor of “Health Affairs,” said that although it seems that infant mortality is decreasing and health spending is increasing in China and India, those positive results are deceptive. He said that lower infant mortality rates do not necessarily reflect better health. Also, the increased health spending is out-of-pocket, not national funding. He said that China struggles to help people in the interior of the country and that India must help citizens in areas that have not kept up with national progress.

Kees Kostermans of the World Bank said that India handles its AIDS problems well. Their programs started early, in 1987, with strong focuses on prevention and data collection. Because of India’s high level of political commitment and ambitious programs targeted to high-risk groups, HIV prevalence in India decreased.

Somnath Chatterji from the World Health Organization added that Chinese and Indian populations are aging. He said that in the next four decades, 40 percent of the world’s old will live in India and China. The two nations’ populations are growing older, but health is getting worse. He recommended educating and empowering people to care for themselves now rather than wait for the sudden increase in mortality.

On the topic of Chinese health insurance, Tsung-Mei Cheng from Princeton University said that China hopes to achieve universal health coverage by 2020.