Until William F. Weld arrived at the State House as governor in 1991, it had been assumed for decades that state government had an important role to play in overseeing health care costs. When hospitals wanted to add more beds, for instance, or provide cardiac catheter services, they had to make their case to state regulators that such moves were in the public interest. At the same time, the state’s rate commission helped collect cost data from providers and establish the rates that hospitals could charge for procedures, within broad parameters.
However, those efforts were deemed too radical by conservatives in state government. Weld and his secretary of health and human services, Charles D. Baker, are viewed today as moderate Republicans. But in fact they were devout libertarians when it came to issues regarding government regulation. Their mantra was not so different from the Tea Party backers of today — the less government, the better. In health care, the Weld administration essentially deregulated the system in 1992, based strictly on ideological grounds. Hospitals could charge what they wanted, passing on the costs to insurers — who, in turn, passed them on to employers and the economy as a whole.
Comments
Philip, I must inject a little history into the whole health care debate. The cost of which, for an individual, as a company benefit or as a government program, has shot through the roof. Exactly, what did cause this price escalation? The answer is not politicians it is simply: computerization. A cost no one bothers to mention. Over the last twenty five years everything in health care, be it administration controls, patient records, patient scheduling, medical device manufacture, diagnostic procedure, post procedure analysis, x-ray, MRI and Cat Scan is computer controlled, analyzed, dissected and regurgitated as a stored, printable record. A gigantic achievement, all to our benefit. How did Bill Gates, et al, attain that "b" status. Computerization costs! The advances across the board in diagnosis as well as care are extraordinary. We live a computer age. Our life expectancy has increased.
Does the Globe think its readers are so stupid that they wouldn't realize this is the former chair of the MA Democratic Party? You think it might have been relevant to reveal that?
This is flatly wrong: "While costs have dropped since the recession began, this is a temporary respite stemming from lower utilization due in a bad economy." The author clearly has no idea of the extent to which health care providers are re-evaluating their performance and implementing efficiency improvements that are making care delivery more cost effective. Having had to deal with the state on numerous issues, the last thing a complex issue like health care cost reduction needs is help from state government. That would be inviting disaster.