Plans by Massachusetts Gubernatorial Candidate To Restructure Medicaid Should Be Considered, Editorial States

Massachusetts Republican gubernatorial candidate Mitt Romney's plan to "restructur[e]" the state's Medicaid program "should not be dismissed out of hand," according to a Boston Herald editorial (Boston Herald, 8/8). Under Romney's plan, Medicaid beneficiaries would be charged copayments based on income, although Romney did not say specifically who would pay or how much they would pay. Philip Johnston, the state Democratic Party chair, called Romney's plan a "right-wing, radical proposal" that is the "most anti-consumer" the party has ever seen (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 8/7). Johnston needs to "get a grip," the editorial says, because Romney has not proposed that all Medicaid beneficiaries be charged copays, "only that a sliding scale apply" to some at the "high end of eligibility." The editorial adds that Romney has yet to release the details of his plan, and "it's the details that will make the idea a good one or a bad one" or convince HHS to approve the waiver proposal. The editorial concludes, "Medicaid badly needs good ideas [and] ... money is not the entire point. Everybody values something paid for more than a handout. Even modest copayments (and in Medicaid they'd have to be modest) could make patients think carefully before using the system, and thus increase efficiency" (Boston Herald, 8/8).