Mass Taxpayers Foundation on Health Reform -- Stay the Course

Michael Widmer and the Mass Taxpayers Foundation he heads have long been recognized as one of the preeminent authorities on the Massachusetts budget and spending levels. The Foundation’s analysis is considered honest and credible. When Mike Widmer speaks, people listen.

That’s why today’s Globe op-ed, “Health law costs aren’t the problem” by Widmer is so important. The Foundation has reviewed actual health reform spending, and corrects the common wisdom:

WE’VE HEARD the claims repeated from the moment the bill was signed three years ago - Massachusetts’ health reform law is unaffordable. Those claims have come from a wide variety of ideological and political quarters, but what they have in common is a failure to understand how the law works. 

The Taxpayers Foundation recently released an analysis of the costs to taxpayers of achieving near-universal access to healthcare in Massachusetts. The “surprising’’ conclusion: Between fiscal 2006 and 2010, the annual incremental cost from the state budget is less than $100 million, a modest sum for this historic achievement. This cost is very much in line with estimates that were made when the bill was passed.

Today’s article is based on report MTF issued in May, Massachusetts Health Reform: The Myth of Uncontrolled Costs.

The article also puts the challenge of covering legal immigrants in Commonwealth Care in the proper context. The issue is not unaffordability of health reform, but the plunge in state revenues that is hitting all programs:

The Legislature’s recent decision to cut the fiscal 2010 budget for Commonwealth Care as part of the state’s enormous fiscal crisis has led to renewed claims that health reform is unaffordable. In particular, the issue of Commonwealth Care funding for legal immigrants, while important in its own right, has led many observers and critics to conclude mistakenly that health reform is unraveling.

These critics ignore the fact that the fundamental problem is not the costs of Commonwealth Care, but rather the unprecedented collapse of state tax revenues. With the state facing a structural budget gap of $5 billion in fiscal 2010, virtually every state program has hit the cutting board. And as is always the case during economic downturns, caseload-driven programs like Commonwealth Care experience a temporary increase in enrollment.

Widmer concludes that health reform is worth it:

To be sure, Massachusetts, like the nation, must address the escalating costs of healthcare - for government, employers, and individuals alike - and Massachusetts has launched a variety of efforts to deal with this intractable problem. But this persistent problem has little to do with the health reform law. These are extraordinarily difficult times for all of state government, and it is not helpful to advance unfounded allegations about the unaffordability of health reform. We need to stay the course on one of the most important state initiatives of recent times, which has become a beacon for the rest of the nation.

We agree, and appreciate the valuable contribution the Mass Taxpayers Foundation is adding to the health reform discussion.
-Brian Rosman