Mass. House Health Care Move Pits Baker Against Business
Expect a fight on Beacon Hill this year when business groups and employer lobbies attempt to beat back Gov. Charlie Baker's plans to rescue the state budget from runaway Medicaid spending.
In the budget plan approved Monday, the House's budget committee, Speaker DeLeo and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Brian Dempsey grant Baker's administration the authority to pursue an assessment on employers that don't provide health insurance. MassHealth, the state's Medicaid program, has been inundated with workers who enroll in state-subsidized plans instead of using insurance offered by their employer. Baker's plan, set out in his initial budget proposal made earlier this year, would penalize employers $2,000 per worker for not offering enough insurance to workers.
The House's decision to hand Baker the responsibility to look into the assessment comes with a catch: before they can set up a penalty system, the administration, under revenue commissioner Michael Heffernan, will be required to hold hearings to wade through some of the problems the business community has with Baker's idea. The hearing process could expose a conflict between an administration looking to alleviate MassHealth's burden and a business community that is reluctant to see broad penalties applied to job-creators.
Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce President Jim Rooney called the House's delay of a health insurance assessment "a step in the right direction."
Read more: http://news.wgbh.org/2017/04/11/politics-government/mass-house-health-care-move-pits-baker-against-business
