Mass. Struggles to Cut Health Care Costs
![Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick](https://d.medicaldaily.com/en/full/221664/massachusetts-gov-deval-patrick.jpg?w=500&f=3eb451bd0b2c8869dec5685bb473506a)
Five years after former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) signed a health care law mandating citizens purchase health care, the system is spiraling in health care costs, a sign of what could happen with the federal law.
The Massachusetts health care law brought health insurance to about 98 percent of the residents of the state. However, the cost of providing health care has grown and for more than three years legislators have been trying to devise a plan to control the cost.
Health care spending in Massachusetts was 15 percent above the national average, according to a state health care report released in 2010. Private health insurance premiums rose 5 to 10 percent annually between 2007 and 2009.
President Obama’s federal health care law was a model of Romney’s plan. According to recently released White House records, Obama even recruited Romney health care advisers to formulate the system.
To rein in health care costs, Mass. Current Gov. Deval Patrick has toyed with implementing a voluntary “global payment” system where doctors and hospitals are paid a set fee as a group.
However a recent study from the Massachusetts Medical Society found that about 60 percent of doctors said they would not likely join a voluntary global payment system.
The federal health law hit financing hurdles next week as the White House announced Friday it would drop CLASS, a voluntary long-term care program for workers. In a statement, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the department found the program was not financially sustainable.
Opponents of the law have said the entire program is financially unsustainable.