Can't anything get done around here with a new agency being created??? And the creating the worst type: the dreaded "quasi-independent" agency.

Another agency! Good jobs at good wages

There are two parts of this story which give pause. 1. DeLeo's involvement. His general track record - pun intended - with such things as casinos identifies him as a homer with allegiances to folks he knows and who scratch his back. Who's scratching his back on this one? 2. Any attempt to control medical costs simply cannot focus on providers in isolation. There is a vast system at play, and the providers end up being the ones collecting fees for everyone else. Medical software makers, Medical high tech device makers, landlords, etc. do not send bills to patients. But they might as well. If providers only billed for their services, and let those other entities extract their fees directly from patients, the conversation would be extremely different.

Here comes DeLeo and his Demohacks in the House... Create a new bureaucracy... more state jobs for party loyalists... "Save families an average of $2,000 annually in health insurance premiums" ... as the Globe puts it? And how much willl it cost in increased tax revenue spending to pay the bureaucrats who set about to nanny the project health care industry's supposed growth in spending"?

The occupant of the State House corner office and other leaders in Massachusetts brag ad nauseum that the health care industry is a huge part of the state's fairly robust economy during the national economic doldrums. But something seems to be missing from this Globe account of the effort to creat DeLeocare ... Where is the report on the impact of all this $2,000/year/family premium saving on the teaching hospital research sector, never mind the electronics, instruments, pharmaceuticals and other sectors devoted to health care? Does DeLeo and his merry band of lawgivers really think that this scheme of theirs is going to benefit the entire cloud of health care industry participants? Or are they merely worried about the parts of it that deal with sneezes, aches and upchucks?

ACOs, Quality, Global....it's all about rationing services for the middle class because we have to feed The Connector!!!!! a devious plan created by the big hospitals and insurers with Devalid Patrick to dump "free care" on the taxpayer and premium payers. Massachusetts' middle class cannot afford these phony projected "savings", talk about cost shifting, geez! On another matter, meaningful increase in preventive care is a pipe dream, a canard even. It will take generations of bottle bills, candy taxes, outlawing french fries, and closing burger joints to make even a dent in prevention. Global Payment for a doctor's patient population prevention program will include lectures but no treatment, treatment would empty the Global Payment bank account.