Living out the Brandeis credo to be a laboratory for democracy, we showed a path to providing health care coverage for nearly all residents
John E. McDonough
Posted inOpinion
Follow the money: Is the CVS-MGB primary care deal good for Mass.?
The plan must be considered in the context of the state’s primary care task force and its emerging vision for a reformed primary care system.
Posted inOpinion
Dana-Farber plan merits tough scrutiny from state officials
While research scientists and clinicians focus their war on cancer, this has become a war for cancer dollars.
Posted inOpinion
Overall, we think the Steward outcome is pretty good
The faster Apollo is out the door the better. Though Apollo will certainly contest the Commonwealth’s $4.5 million fair market valuation for St. Elizabeth’s, state officials seem determined that any fight over money will not interrupt plans for an immediate seizure of the Brighton land and buildings.
Posted inOpinion
For-profit medicine is ruining Massachusetts health care
While much of Massachusetts’ medical care system remains resolutely non-profit, the signs of for-profit encroachment are slow, silent, and everywhere.
Posted inOpinion
The state’s options with Steward on the brink
State government needs to re-engage in statewide health system planning. We need functioning markets in health and medical care, and we need intelligent and thoughtful statewide planning that is more proactive and less reactive.
Posted inOpinion
Some thoughts on how to deal with the Steward situation
STEWARD HEALTH CARE appears to be in serious financial trouble. In some ways, it’s surprising the for-profit health care system — with 33 hospitals, including eight in Massachusetts, plus a physicians […]
Posted inHealth Care
For Affordable Care Act at 13, reversals of fortune
TODAY MARKS THE Affordable Care Act’s 13th birthday since its signing by President Obama on March 23, 2020, a landmark moment that our current president famously noted at the time with […]
Posted inOpinion
DPH gets it right on Mass General Brigham
THE LONG-RUNNING power struggle between Mass General Brigham, the state’s largest health and hospital system, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts took a decisive turn this past week. Department of Public […]
Posted inOpinion
Moment of truth for state’s health cost benchmark
A MOMENT OF TRUTH is now here for Mass General Brigham, as well as for the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission, the Department of Public Health, and for health insurance premium […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
2 takes on how to protect our health and democracy
Push back deadlines and reduce signature requirements By John E. McDonough, Paul Hattis, and David K. Jones The ongoing COVID-19 global epidemic is having an unexpected negative impact on our […]
Posted inHealth Care
On health performance, Mass. not such a shiny star
MANY BAY STATE health care cognoscenti and politicos like to brag about Massachusetts health statistics. For years now, Massachusetts has performed well, at or near the top, in surveys of […]
Posted inOpinion
Why we’re voting no on Question 1
SHOULD MASSACHUSETTS establish mandated nurse-to-patient ratios in law for all the state’s acute care hospitals? This 25-year-old conflict between the Massachusetts Nurses Association and Massachusetts Hospital Association will be determined […]
Posted inHealth Care
Time for Baker to step up on health care
FOR THE BETTER part of this decade, Massachusetts had been on a roll regarding its health system’s performance. Since passage of the 2006 universal health insurance law, we’ve been tops […]
Posted inOpinion
We need CBO-like scoring of state health care bills
WHEN I WAS A MEMBER of the Massachusetts House of Representatives back in the 1990s, I learned about the concept of continuous quality improvement, or CQI, as a way to […]
Posted inHealth Care
An upstart helps to reshape MassHealth
ON MARCH 1, the state’s Medicaid program—known as MassHealth—entered a new era with the launch of 17 accountable care organizations, or ACOs, aiming to provide better coordinated care at lower […]
Posted inOpinion
Silver linings and seeds in tax cut law – Part II
This is the second part of John McDonough’s “Silver Linings Playbook.” Read the first installment here. THE AMERICAN AUTHOR Napoleon Hill wrote: “Every adversity has the seed of an equivalent or […]
Posted inOpinion
Tax cut’s silver linings playbook
A CORE TENET of behavioral economics is that most of us are biased toward optimism. I plead guilty. Today’s Exhibit A of my optimism bias is the Republican federal tax […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion, Politics
5 takeaways from Baker’s health reform
PHASE 2 OF THE BAKER ADMINISTRATION’S ambitious health reform agenda emerged this past week. It contains good and smart proposals – and worrisome ones needing attention. Phase 1 is an […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
A Republican path to ACA reform?
IF PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP and Congressional Republicans were to decide that fixing rather than destroying the Affordable Care Act, especially its private health insurance marketplaces, was in their self-interest, could […]
Posted inHealth Care
Bending the Medicaid cost curve
IN A WILDLY uncertain national health care environment, something new, audacious, and risky is happening in MassHealth, the Medicaid program that provides health coverage to 1.9 million people who are […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
Obamacare more durable than expected
GLOBAL HEALTH EXPERT Michael Reich says that the acid test of any national health reform comes when a new national administration takes over. Only when a new president or prime […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
GOP cuts are moral challenge for America
THE BIG NEWS IS, of course, the “score” from the Congressional Budget Office detailing that the House Republican bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare will result in […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
Republicans showing their hand on ACA ‘replacement’
LATE LAST WEEK, Politico released a leaked 105-page draft bill defining the House Republican plan to repeal/replace/repair/re-whatever the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare. The draft legislation was dated February 10, so likely […]