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Uxbridge lawmaker in health reform spotlight July 30, 2009 ... As debate rages on Capitol Hill and across the nation over President Obama's plans to reform health care, a low-key Massachusetts lawmaker who presides over health care debates on Beacon Hill has assumed an uncommonly high profile in some rarefied national circles. State Sen. Richard T. Moore, D-Uxbridge, one of the Legislature's most influential voices on health care, was among a coalition of legislators from around the country who this week convinced the influential National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) to support health reform for all Americans. Sen. Moore was also among the leaders in Massachusetts behind this state’s successful three year old health reform law. The group's approval of the national health reform policy on Thursday was not a “blank check” endorsement of every aspect of the plans being debated and discussed by the White House and Congress. Nevertheless, the message of support for reform from state legislators contrasted starkly with the failure of the National Governors Association to embrace the effort for health reform the week before the NCSL conference. "I want state legislators to have a seat at the table and to exercise as much clout as we can in this important national debate that directly impacts all of our constituents,” Sen. Moore said following the state legislators' weeklong meeting in Philadelphia. Moore is the newly chosen President-Elect of NCSL, a bi-partisan organization which represents the nation’s 7,328 state legislators. The policy resolution passed by NCSL warned the federal government not to reform health care on the backs of the states. NCSL called on Congress and the Obama Administration to fully fund the new Medicaid beneficiaries and services outlined in the federal health reform proposals. Several of the proposals would increase the number of people and expand the type of services states would have to provide. State legislators, dealing with the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, want to make sure that the federal government will pick up the tab for these services. “Massachusetts already has enrolled 100,000 new Medicaid members since the passage of our landmark Massachusetts Health Reform law in 2006,” Sen. Moore noted. “We believe that we, and other progressive health reform states, should be helped, and not punished through the national reform efforts,” he added. The policy on federal health reform that will guide NCSL’s federal lobbying efforts in the coming year states that any reform of federal health care must respect states’ interests and ensure people will be able to keep all their insurance protections. “We support covering all Americans, but we want to ensure that a state-federal partnership includes respect for state law, avoiding cost shifts and unfunded mandates,” Sen. Moore elaborated. “States, like Massachusetts, led the way in health care reform initiatives and many already have passed reform efforts in recent years. We don’t want these achievements to be undermined by Congress or the President,” he added. Currently, Medicaid absorbs about 15 percent of state general fund budgets. As unemployment rates increase in states and people lose their jobs, they can lose employer-provided health insurance and turn to Medicaid for coverage. The health reform policy, adopted by state legislators at the NCSL annual meeting in Philadelphia, includes statements on:
Passage of NCSL’s policy resolution is only the latest step in Sen. Moore’s involvement in national health reform. Just last month, Moore was the lone Massachusetts lawmaker among legislators from 22 states who were summoned to the White House to discuss health care with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and health reform czar Nancy-Ann DeParle. "It seems to me that the [U.S.] House is going to pass something and the [U.S.] Senate is going to pass something, and the president is going to weigh in on the conference committee," he said. Before that happens, Moore hopes that state legislators who have been leading efforts at health reform in their respective states can influence the debate and achieve his long-held goal of improving health care while containing costs. Recently, the Senator led the establishment of a Special Committee of the Massachusetts Senate on National Health Reform to advise the Massachusetts Congressional delegation on the effects of proposals for national health reform on the ongoing reform efforts in the Bay State. It is an effort that has proven slow and difficult in Minnesota, consuming Moore's attention as co-chair of a Health Care Financing Committee and member of a Special Commission on Health Care Payment Reform. But Moore’s ideas are resonating in a solution-hungry Washington dominated by Democrats in the White House and Congress. The best way to cut costs, Moore says, is to reward doctors for keeping people healthy rather than just for treating them when they're already sick. Replace fee-for-service, he says, with payment for outcomes and performance. "My biggest interest is payment reform, because you can't really change the health care system unless you change the way you pay for it," he said. Moore is an advocate of "medical homes" -- a system of coordinating care for patients, especially those with costly chronic conditions, under the direction of a single primary care doctor. Such a system would eliminate duplicative services and cut back on expensive specialists. After the economy, health care was the next top concern at the conference in Philadelphia last week, Moore said. "Almost everyone in attendance understood that if we don't transform the health care system, our economy is not going to be competitive with other countries," he said. "Everyone agrees that we have to do this and we have to do it as quickly as possible." |
