On behalf of the 65+ organizations statewide, that have worked together for more than 2 years as the Disparities Action Network (DAN) to craft legislation that would provide for an Office of Health Equity to be located in the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, as Co-Chair I wish to express our great disappointment in the House budget released last week for its failure to support this provision as it was contained in Governor Patrick’s budget proposal.
As we get ready to “celebrate” the second anniversary of the Massachusetts health care experiment, the message in the House budget is clear; there is no political will or budgetary authority for addressing the most challenging issues for true health reform. For the past two years the Connector has extolled the success of Chapter 58 as if access is the only measure of success. Other provisions of the law have failed to deliver the real promise of health reform. The Quality and Cost Council has no apparent agenda for controlling spiraling costs and have failed to make the link between cost and quality for consumers, despite their dependence on “an educated consumer” for ensuring accountability in the health care system. The Disparities Council was just named and put in place at the end of 2007 and has met only once since then despite the report of the Special Legislative Commission chaired by Senator Dianne Wilkerson and Representative Peter Koutoujian calling for such an Office as to eliminating disparities and creating health equity.
The time and the circumstances present a unique opportunity for Massachusetts to address the persistent racial and ethnic disparities in health and health care and lead the nation yet again in what is clearly the leading human and civil rights issue of the 21st Century. Dr. King’s assertion in 1966 … “of all forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane” has never been more true. Excess mortality and morbidity and unnecessary deaths of racial and ethnic minorities, the shame of the American health care system has been the focus of a seminal report of the Institute of Medicine, the research efforts of the National Institutes of Health, the Massachusetts Legislature and State Department of Public Health, and the Boston Public Health Commission. Advocates for change know that health disparities are a downstream outcome of the varied social, political and economic determinants upstream that have to do with education, jobs, transportation, housing, and environmental policy. An Office of Health Equity at the Cabinet level under Secretary Bigby ensures the coordination of state policy at the highest level in the Executive branch to shape policy upstream to change outcomes downstream. It could provide the structural home and administrative support for the work of the Disparities Council. It is the essential authority needed to lead an initiative that will eliminate disparities through coordinated and collaborative efforts between the Secretariats.
It’s time for the Legislative branch to get on board. The members of the DAN call on Speaker DiMasi, House leadership, and members to support the amendment of Representative Rushing to restore the Office of Health Equity to the House budget.
Elmer Freeman, Executive Director, Center for Community Health Education Research and Service, Inc. and Co-Chair, Disparities Action Network.
The Massachusetts Health Care Quality and Cost Council just released its first Annual Report, which identifies specific strategies designed to improve health care quality while containing costs. The full report is available on the Council’s website at http://www.mass.gov/healthcare.
The Council adopted six health care quality improvement goals that are intended to lower or contain the growth in health care costs while improving quality and reducing racial and ethnic health disparities. These goals address health care cost control, patient safety, chronic care management and prevention, end of life care, racial and ethnic disparities, and transparency. This report discusses each of these goals in detail, along with the Council’s recommended strategies for attaining them.
The Council is also working to promote access to high-quality, efficient care through the development of a consumer-friendly website that provides information about the quality and cost of health care services in Massachusetts. This website will be available in June 2008.
Katharine London
Executive Director
Massachusetts Health Care Quality and Cost Council
As an African-American woman with many health issues, I am one of the thousands of people who are victims of health disparities. Funding for an Office of Health Equity will provide the resources
to assist in promoting health reform. At present there are no mechanisms to promote the health equity which we all deserve. Excellent – and accessible – health care must be viewed and treated as a right – not a priviledge!
Beverly, thank you for pointing out what most in power know but do not act upon, yet, and that is: “At present there are no mechanisms to promote the health equity which we all deserve. Excellent – and accessible – health care must be viewed and treated as a right – not a priviledge!” You are right on. We need an executive branch office to provide leadership and accountability for reforms that will advance health equity in the Commonwealth.
I’m a nurse and health reform activist who works with people in moderate and low income urban populations in MA. I cannot begin to describe the urgency of enacting SOCIAL INSURANCE FOR ALL in order to prevent yet another early death or permanent disability that I and other health professionals bear witness to on a regular basis. Where’s the outrage? Healthcare injustices disproportionately affect people of color. Where’s the action?
These extreme events of tens of thousands of preventable deaths and disability annually go hand in hand with immense preventable suffering that is endured by patients and their families, in addition to driving up costs (One person’s cost is another person’s profit in our market-driven system, I suppose. How immoral is that?).
I, and many others, believe that we can build the broad political movement required to enact state and national level reforms for Improved Medicare For All with everybody in and nobody out — health care policy the civilized way!
Everyone is invited to participate in a Day of Health Reform Activism in Boston on Monday April 28, 2008. Here’s the Press Release for the events:
MEDIA ADVISORY FOR: Monday, April 28, 2008
Contact: Rand Wilson, 617 803-0799
Alanna Sobel, 202 7897751
Bryan Buchanan, 202-789-7783
***GREAT VISUALS***
On 2-Year Anniversary of MA Health Bill Passage,
Activists Rally Against Mandates, For Universal Health Care
Health care activists from around the country and state will hold a forum in Boston on Monday, April 28 to analyze the failures of the individual mandate approach Massachusetts adopted last year through the Chapter 58 health care law.
A morning panel featuring health care professionals, experts and testimony from individuals hurt by the mandate system will highlight the problems of trying to achieve broader access through individual insurance mandates.
Later, hundreds of people are expected to rally for a “Medicare for All” approach to achieving affordable health care reform. The rally will be at 4:30 PM on Boston Common. There will also be special showing for state legislators of Michael Moore’s documentary SiCKO at the Massachusetts State House at 1:30pm.
WHEN: Monday, April 28
WHERE: Forum at 9:00 AM, Marriott Courtyard, 63 R Boston St., South Boston
SiCKO screening at 1:30pm, Massachusetts State House, Gardener Auditorium
Rally at 4:30 PM, Boston Common, Parkman Bandstand, with music by Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine. Tom is joining us at the Rally as part of his national Justice Tour!
Don’t ya just love it when the people who helped create Chapter 58 and health care reform refer to it as “experiment.”
“As we get ready to “celebrate” the second anniversary of the Massachusetts health care experiment,”
Elmer Freeman
Aren’t experiments done on lab animals, like mice and monkeys?
It is critical to achieve the correct budgeting and distribution of our attention, commitment, and energy to both advance the cause of health care in the commonwealth and to simultaneously achieve a one payor national system.
MCC is a tax:
The only people celebrating the second anniversary of this wasteful and punitive nightmare are the arrogant powerbrokers and politicians who are trying to save face while this bloodsucker goes down in flames.
Is this so-called health care reform a success when many residents are being harmed? Deval Patrick, when asked this question on the March 13 statewide NPR call-in, stated that it’s not good even it if hurts ten people, but he managed to double talk his way out of that about one sentence later.
Is it honorable to use people as unwilling test subjects in an experiment that hurts them? History tells us that this is a crime, but powerful people will try to get away with just about anything until the lawyers step in. Then the fun is over.
Coercion is deliberate violence and is inhuman. It also ends in chaos.
This is very interesting. more later