Gov. Charlie Baker touted his proposed health care bill on Wednesday, saying that he hopes it will modernize the state’s health care system and directly improve access to mental health and addiction services.
“The goal here was to work to encourage a framework for health care that was consistent with the nature of illness,” Baker said during an interview with Boston Public Radio. “We now have gaps in our health care system that no one, I don’t think, really would dispute around behavioral health services, geriatrics, primary care, and addiction services.”
Among some of the reforms in Baker’s bill, which he proposed Friday, is a plan to require new drugs that cost more than $50,000 a patient per year to be subject to a review process with the state, and would require justifications for those prices. For drugs currently on the market, Baker’s bill would limit price increases to two percent per year from the market rate at the time.
Baker said he also hopes to reduce health care costs for the public by putting an end to surprise medical bills that can sometimes result from hospitals utilizing specialists not within a patient’s insurance network. Baker proposes requiring hospitals to bill patients the same rate they would for an in-network specialist if they are receiving care from a provider within their network.
“The goal here was to work to encourage a framework for health care that was consistent with the nature of illness,” Baker said.
During Wednesday's interview, Baker also shared his thoughts on Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All Act, which would gradually phase out private insurance, except for plastic surgery. Baker said he’s concerned Sanders’ proposal would do harm to hospitals, particularly smaller ones, who may not be able to sustain themselves on the rates Medicare currently pays. There is not a consensus within the medical profession if hospitals will have to close under a Medicare for All system, given the amount of uninsured patients some hospitals provide care to.
“The one thing I would say about Medicare for All is ... because of the way Medicare pays, there are many hospitals that would have a very hard time surviving on Medicare rates,” Baker said. “They basically either lose money or barely break even on Medicare, and they really create most of their margin on what they get paid by [commercial insurance], which typically tends to be more.”
