Celia Wcislo, assistant director of 1199 SEIU, United Healthcare Workers East, offers a reminder that reforming the health care system requires that individuals, insurers and providers all take on a share of the burden:
As Congress prepares to find consensus on the critical issues that will form the foundation of national health care reform legislation, many eyes are focused on Massachusetts and more specifically, on the individual health care requirement that was key to our success in expanding health care to the overwhelming majority of Massachusetts residents.
Both the U.S. Senate and House versions of legislation include a requirement that individuals who are economically able purchase health insurance. Though the language of the two bills is slightly different, the intent is similar to Massachusetts’s vision: individuals who face economic hardships are exempt from this requirement as well as any proposed contribution of their limited income. A health insurance mandate is not about punishing anyone; it’s about increasing participation and ensuring that everyone – individuals, government, and business — is doing their part. We have come to see it as a key part of our model of “shared responsibility.”
There are those who would like to frame this requirement as the beginning of the end of our constitutional protections and an express ticket to the slammer. This approach does nothing to educate Americans, business owners, or health care providers about the value of a health insurance requirement. And while labor and progressives were slow to embrace this idea originally, the health insurance mandate has truly helped to expand quality, comprehensive care to more Massachusetts citizens. And if done right, it could help improve the health of our nation. Read more…
Michael Doonan, assistant professor at Brandeis University and Executive Director of the Massachusetts Health Policy Forum, and JudyAnn Bigby, M.D., Massachusetts Secretary of Health and Human Services, will blog live during President Obama’s speech on health care tonight starting at 8 p.m.
In advance of Obama’s address to Congress and the nation, see the New York Times’ take on what to look for in the speech and Sheryl Gay Stolberg’s news analysis. And here’s NPR’s overview.
State-subsidized health insurance for 31,000 legal immigrants, set to expire this week, is reinstated, but benefits are scaled back. Read the Globe story.
Rachel Zimmerman
While the excellent Martha Bebinger is on leave, I will be managing CommonHealth, and I’m thrilled to take on the job, starting today.
The blog will continue to feature a thoughtful and diverse stable of contributors who work in all aspects of health care, from doctors and insurers to academics, consumers, lawmakers, employers and activists. As health care reform in Massachusetts continues to unfold, I’ll be expanding the list of guest contributors, so if you have strong opinions about cost, delivery, access or quality of care in this state, please contact me at zimmerman08@gmail.com. (And if your opinions include photos, charts, or documents, all the better.)
As for me, I worked as a staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal for 10 years, most recently covering health and medicine out of the paper’s Boston Bureau.
I’ve also written for the New York Times, the (now-defunct) Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and the alternative paper, Willamette Week, in Portland, Oregon, among other publications. I just co-wrote a book about birth, published by Bantam/Random House, and I spent last year as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT. I live in Cambridge with my husband and two daughters.
Again, please feel free to send along ideas, comments or critiques. It should be a fascinating year!
Cheers,
Rachel Zimmerman
CommonHealth is taking the last two weeks of August off. When it returns on 8/31, the blog will be under new management. I’m taking a 10 month leave from WBUR. Rachel Zimmerman, a former health and medicine reporter with the Wall Street Journal, will run the blog. You can reach her at zimmerman08@gmail.com.
Thanks to all, Martha Bebinger
We had some web wobbles today at WBUR. We lost a few posts and some comments. I will reinsert the posts, but don’t have a list of the comments that have disappeared. My apologies to anyone whose comment was erased.
Martha Bebinger
This week we will post essays from historians, political scientists and health policy aides who worked on legislation to expand coverage of the uninsured in the US. I look forward to their thoughts and yours about lessons to apply as President-elect Barack Obama, Senator Ted Kennedy, Senator Max Baucus and others try not to repeat history.
Martha Bebinger
Regular posts will begin again on Sept. 3rd
“CommonHealth” is a community blog at WBUR that tracks Massachusetts’ attempt to cover the uninsured and control health care spending. The goals are to create a broad conversation and to cover more issues and updates than we can within the daily news cycle. The blog includes daily posts from a group of contributors listed below, guest contributors, stories produced by WBUR and links to other analysis and resources. Read more…