Previous Page | Print this Document

January 6, 2006 - Expanding the state's health care system was always going to be expensive, complicated and messy. But with the House, Senate and Gov. Mitt Romney pledging success, it seemed the stars were aligned and Massachusetts would insure as many of its citizens as possible.

Then reality hit home. On Friday, a top leader in the Senate suggested a six-member committee working out compromises between the House and Senate versions of the bill should take more drastic action.

"Maybe we need to sit down, look at our assumptions and maybe write a whole new bill if that's what it takes," said Senate Ways and Means Chairwoman Therese Murray.

Murray made her comments a day after she and two other senators on the committee released a letter publicly criticizing the House bill. It was a breach of protocol on Beacon Hill, where final bill negotiations are conducted behind closely guarded doors.

The House chairwoman of the committee said she was "shocked" by the letter, but Murray said she broke no confidences. She said the letter acknowledged crucial differences in the two bills: how much health care reform will cost, how to pay for it, and how many people will be covered.

"We can't make policy decisions on coverage until we know what our bottom line is and we both realize that we have problems with our bottom line," said Murray, D-Plymouth.

She said the bill's price tag is steep -- as high $2 billion.

The House plan relies in part on a payroll tax targeting companies that don't provide health insurance to employees. The Senate plan requires larger employers that don't offer insurance to reimburse the state if their workers use the state's "free care pool" for the uninsured.

The stakes are high.

If the House and Senate fail to reach agreement, not only does the promise of expanded health care once again slip away, but the state could lose more than $700 million in federal health care grants over the next two years. There's a Jan. 15 deadline, but both sides agree that could slide.

Failure, both sides say, is not an option -- although they are at a loss to say exactly how they will find their way out of the fiscal thicket.

"We're comfortable with our numbers. Maybe the senate isn't comfortable with their numbers," said Rep. Patricia Walrath, D-Stow, the House chairwoman of the committee.

The threat of a stalemate is so serious that House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi and Senate President Robert Travaglini, both Boston Democrats, may need to step in and help broker a deal, according to John McDonough of the advocacy group Health Care for All, which backs the payroll tax portion of the House bill.

"I think, if anything, the letter was a cry for help. We can't figure this out ourselves. We need help from above," he said.

The Senate Chairman of the committee, Richard Moore, D-Uxbridge, said there's precedent.

But he also expressed concern about DiMasi's public statements in favor of the House version of the bill, saying DiMasi has been "sermonizing" while the committee has been trying to work out a compromise.

"We are going to work on areas where we can have credibility on both sides and can come to agreement," Moore said. "But some of the bigger issues that face us come down to how much money is available."

A spokeswoman for Travaglini said he and DiMasi are in regular contact.

"The communications between the offices are quite open. They talk to each other frequently, sometimes daily," said Travaglini spokeswoman Ann Dufresne.

DiMasi spokeswoman Kim Haberlin also said the two talk often. "Health care reform legislation is a priority for the speaker and the senate president," she said.

Despite the friction, both sides said they were optimistic a final compromise will be reached and a bill will be sent to Romney for his signature.

"I wouldn't say we were anywhere near the point of pulling the plug," Moore said. 

Previous Page | Print this Document