Monthly Archives: August 2005

HCFA, other advocates, hospital groups and physicians sent a letter to Governor Romney yesterday asking him to freeze plans to make changes to the state’s Uncompensated Care Trust Fund (“free care pool”), the state administered fund that makes payments to … Continue reading →

Here are excerpts from our press relase today on the 2005 Census Bureau report on the uninsured: “Health care advocates are disappointed by new figures showing substantial growth in the number of uninsured people in Massachusetts. “’The numbers continue to … Continue reading →

The Massachusetts Affordable Care Today campaign to put real health reform on the 2006 state ballot has a new website that will be the central organizing site for the effort to collect 100,000 signatures over 12 days starting on September … Continue reading →

Today we learned two numerical factoids about MassHealth that have important policy relevance: 1. The Wait List Monster – The wait list for the MassHealth Essential program (for long-term unemployed adults below the poverty line) is now around 5,400 people. … Continue reading →

Back in January, Gov. Romney and Sen. Kennedy announced they had reached a deal with the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to renew for three years the MassHealth Waiver that has provided hundreds of millions of dollars … Continue reading →

Here are excerpts from a new Business Wire piece that provides a window into new small business health insurance practices we’re seen nowhere else. And click here for a Lawrence Eagle Tribune article that quotes HCFA’s policy-meister Brian Rosman. “New … Continue reading →

Malcolm Gladwell, of The Tipping Point and Blink, has a must-read article in the new New Yorker on moral hazard: “the bad idea behind our health care system.” Gladwell has a great talent in turning dry economic theory into compelling … Continue reading →

It was supposed to be a fixed game. Congress demands and the Bush Administration appoints a Commission with one mission — find $10 billion in cuts to the nation’s essential health care safety net for the poor, Medicaid. Yesterday’s New … Continue reading →

How much damage will be done to Medicaid, the basic health program for poor Americans, during the Bush era? The worst may be yet to come. Check out this Associated Press article on the South Carolina proposal for a new … Continue reading →

I know, I know! I refer way too often to articles in the New York Times. But dammit, they have some of the best stuff anywhere, and it’s irresponsible to ignore. Today, they publish the second of three pieces on … Continue reading →