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Moore says Mass. can learn from Belgian health plan |
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Sen. Moore, Sen. Therese Murray, Chairwoman of Way and Means, Senate President Robert E. Travaglini meet with the Belgian Health Minister, Rudy Demotte and Belgian Health Officials at the State House. |
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STATEHOUSE NEWS SERVICE February 8, 2007... Belgian health care officials could teach the Massachusetts lawmakers they visited today about more vigorous cost negotiations with pharmaceutical companies, Sen. Richard Moore said. Moore, an author of the state’s health care reform law, said the system in Belgium allows the broader freedom of consumer choice that Bay State policymakers envisioned could someday develop if the law is implemented well. Belgium, which imposes a wage tax to a central organization that pays for health care as well as retirement funds, relies on a public-private partnership they traveled Stateside to discuss, holding forth at the Brookings Institution in Washington earlier this week. “We are inspired by the same principles,” said Rudy Demotte, Belgium’s public health minister, after a meeting with Moore, Senate Ways and Means Chairwoman Therese Murray, and legislative staffers. “We respect the free market, but we want to recognize health care as a common good.” The wider menu of plans was developed intentionally to deliver greater choice, Demotte said: “We are more based on the quality … than on the providing of a wider basket. For instance, if you want a bit more luxury in how you’re handled in a hospital room, you’ll pay for it." |
