Legislators say cities to blame for benefits. Sean P. Murphy, Boston Globe, March 10, 2010 A group of Massachusetts mayors, fed up with what they say is legislative inaction on skyrocketing municipal health care costs, has launched a ballot initiative for 2012 aimed at giving cities and towns more flexibility in reducing expensive benefits for employees, retirees, and elected officials. Mayor Thomas M. Menino of Boston hosted a strategy session of about 20 mayors in City Hall Friday. The group emerged with a proposal to allow communities to reduce benefits without union negotiations. ... Mayors

Robert J. Haynes, President, Massachusetts AFL-CIO, Malden, Boston Globe, March 8, 2010 The Globe professes that “the solutions are clear enough’’ to the problem of rising health insurance costs (“Soaring municipal health costs cry out for a state overhaul,’’ Editorial, March 2), yet does not address the actual solutions or the real problems, and chooses instead to scapegoat workers. The position that workers’ collective bargaining rights and agreements are the problem ... That

Study finds savings in state health plan; law change sought to empower towns. Sean P. Murphy, Boston Globe, March 3, 2010 Cities and towns would save tens of millions of dollars in health care costs for employees, retirees, and elected officials by joining the state’s much larger, more flexible health care system, according to a new report by the Boston Foundation. The foundation’s detailed study of four municipalities - Boston, Cambridge, Melrose, and Marshfield - illustrates how health care expenses are severely hampering communities across Massachusetts. ... Coverage

$4.5M deficit must be closed by fall. Jack Encarnacao, Patriot Ledger, March 2, 2010 Quincy - Sobering. Urgent. Vital. Survival. These were among the reactions to a presentation to the city council by the president of Quincy Medical Center, which must close a $4.5 million budget deficit by September 30. Dr. Gary Gibbons said the hospital must enter a new era of discipline, creativity and innovation. “If the medical center is to survive and prosper, Quincy Medical Center must take charge of its own destiny and do so immediately,” he said. “Survival is not a given, but for me in leading the medical center, failure is not an option.” ... Quincy

Associated Press, March 2, 2010 Boston - Governor Deval Patrick is asking for more federal help for Massachusetts hospitals that treat a disproportionate share of those covered by the state-sponsored health plans Commonwealth Care and MassHealth. Under an existing agreement, federal matching funds for these programs are scheduled to phase down during the current fiscal year and the next one. Patrick is filing an amendment to the federal Medicaid waiver that would let the state claim matching funds on the full amount for both fiscal years. Cambridge Health Alliance - the state’s only public acute care hospital - would receive $216 million. Another $115 million would go to six hospitals including Boston Medical Center, Brockton, Caritas Carney, Lawrence, Holyoke and Mercy hospitals.

Small businesses must be allowed to 'group buy' insurance. Cape Cod Times Editorial, March 2, 2010 Health insurance premiums are killing small businesses across the commonwealth. According to a survey recently conducted by the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, small business members have been hit with a 22 percent average rate increase this year alone. In the past five years, many small businesses have seen health care premiums increase about 75 percent, which is about three times higher than the rate hikes experienced by big business and state government. Last week, Governor Deval Patrick requested sweeping authority to review and reject rates charged by insurers ... Unhealthy

Boston Globe Editorial, March 2, 2010 Municipal health care costs in Massachusetts are unjustified and unsustainable. Curbing their excesses is an essential mission for the governor and Legislature. From 1999 to 2009, the cost of insuring municipal employees and retirees surged from 8 percent of the budgets of Massachusetts cities and towns to 14 percent, according to a Globe survey of 25 communities. That’s hundreds of millions of dollars that are not going to property-tax relief, schools, parks, law enforcement, or any other legitimate government purpose. These costs are a yoke around Massachusetts ... Soaring

Wall Street Journal, March 1, 2010

Natural experiments are rare in politics, but few are as instructive as the prototype for ObamaCare that Massachusetts set in motion in 2006. The bills for "universal coverage" are now coming due, and it appears the state political class is prepared to do lasting damage to one of America's top-flight health-care systems.

Strapped towns seek law change. Sean P. Murphy, Boston Globe, March 1, 2010 It was the spring of 2009, and Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll, staring at a $1 million shortfall for her city, had an idea: What if she could get employees to pay more for their health care? Salem had already trimmed 18 positions since 2008, partly to help offset rising municipal health care costs, and Driscoll offered the city’s eight unions a deal: No further layoffs if they agreed to raise, from $5 to $15, certain copayments. She even pledged to pay the first five higher copayments for every worker. ... Unions

But there’s no will or willingness to roll back benefits granted in palmier times. Sean P. Murphy, Boston Globe, February 28, 2010 Elizabeth Debski spent eight years as Everett’s city planner, before losing her job in 2006 when a newly elected mayor installed his own team. But Debski did not leave City Hall empty-handed. In addition to her pension, Debski, at 42, walked away with city-subsidized health care insurance for life. If she lives into her 80s, as actuarial charts predict, taxpayers could pay more than $1 million in all for her family’s health care benefits. ... Runaway

Lisa Eckelbecker, Worcester Telegram & Gazette, February 28, 2010 When Sunshine Sign Co. went to renew its health insurance plan for workers this year, the small business faced a daunting figure - 21 percent. That's how much the Grafton company's premiums for coverage under the Fallon Community Health Plan are going up, and it translates to a price hike of about $1,000 per person a year. For Sunshine Sign, which employs about 30, the result will be slimmer profit margins, according to President and Chief Executive David R. Glispin. ... Small

Joan Vennochi, Boston Globe, February 28, 2010 It’s too bad the two men who got Massachusetts to yes on health insurance reform can’t help the country get to yes on it. One of them - Democratic Senator Edward M. Kennedy - is dead. The other one - Republican Mitt Romney - is politically dead in his party if he plays the same role nationally as he did as governor. In Massachusetts, he was pivotal. “Massachusetts was able to get to yes because the leading public official who kicked it off was Mitt Romney,’’ John McDonough, a former state representative and leading architect of the Massachusetts health insurance overhaul, told Globe reporter ... Can

Harvard Vanguard cites improved care. Liz Kowalczyk, Boston Globe, February 25, 2010 The state’s largest independent doctors group is curtailing referrals to Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, a move it says is designed to better coordinate care of patients and reduce costs. Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates said it has started sending many of its Boston patients to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, unless the patients have a prior relationship with a doctor at the Brigham, where Harvard Vanguard doctors have referred nearly 100 percent of Boston patients for years. ... Doctors

Cash-strapped center turns to outsider to implement savings, revenue-enhancing plans. Paul Angelico is the new "Chief Transformation Officer" of Quincy Medical Center. Jack Encarnacao, Patriot Ledger, February 24, 2010 Quincy - There’s been a unfamiliar and inquisitive face lately in the hallways, patient rooms and administrative offices of cash-strapped Quincy Medical Center. He’s been looking at the books, scrutinizing contracts and studying patient and cash flow. Paul Angelico is as high-minded about the future of the hospital as is his job title: Chief Transformation Officer. ... Quincy

Lisa Wangsness, Boston Globe, February 24, 2010 New York - Ted Kennedy was brimming with excitement when he asked John McDonough to a meeting at a Cambridge hotel in early spring 2008. He wanted McDonough, a former state representative and a leading architect of the Massachusetts health insurance overhaul, to come to Washington and help write the health care bill Kennedy had long dreamed of passing. In his first public interview since leaving Washington empty-handed this month, McDonough smiled ruefully at the memory. ... On