Drive for Single-Payer System in Massachusetts Falters

The campaign to create a single-payer health insurance system in Massachusetts and ultimately produce universal health coverage has stalled because of concerns about the cost and efficacy of such a system, the Boston Business Journal reports. In 2000, state lawmakers approved the hiring of a consultant and the creation of a 33-member advisory committee made up of legislators, providers, labor representatives, employers and advocates to study a single-payer system, under which the state government would handle all health care payments. Further, Mass-Care, a coalition that has led the campaign for a single-payer system, has introduced in every legislative session measures that would establish a single-payer system, but no bill has ever come up for a vote (Goodspeed, Boston Business Journal, 4/4). In 2000, voters narrowly rejected a ballot measure that would have established a universal health care system in the state after heavy opposition from insurers. Last year, an attempt to force lawmakers to create a universal system was blocked by state Attorney General Thomas Reilly, who ruled that the proposal was unconstitutional (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 9/6/01). "Nothing will happen around single-payer health care in the current legislative session. We can't afford it," state Sen. Richard Moore (D), co-chair of the joint state legislative Committee on Health Care, said. Rick Lord, executive director of the Associated Industries of Massachusetts and a member of the advisory committee, added that the state's $1 billion budget deficit is one of the "[c]hief" problems delaying the system's creation. Lord and others also said that a single-payer system might succeed on the national level, but would be "unworkable" on the state level. "I would just caution people that if the government takes over the financing of the health care system, it's not going to be a bed of roses. Just look at the state's Medicaid program. ... Medicaid is one of the reasons many hospitals and providers are in the red. It pays about 70 cents on the dollar. Do we really want our whole health care system to operate like that?" Lord said (Boston Business Journal, 4/4).