Mass. healthcare system a model for Washington?

By Ross Kerber - Analysis

BOSTON (Reuters) - Within Washington's tangled debate over how to reform healthcare, many are looking to Massachusetts, a state that could offer both a way forward and a warning.

As President Barack Obama and Congress work to revamp a wasteful national system which leaves millions uninsured, attention has turned to Massachusetts' ambitious three-year-old program to cover almost all of its 6.4 million people.

Rick Lord, a member of the Massachusetts system's oversight board, last month met with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at Harvard University, and he's also been asked to speak at U.S. Senate hearings.

The program, which is facing a sharp rise in costs as it struggles to provide universal access at a time of economic decline, has a bipartisan heritage.

It was the legacy of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, runner-up for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and a likely presidential candidate in 2012.

But it was also championed by the liberal Massachusetts Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy, a national leader on health issues, who, with other congressional Democrats, is advocating reform plans inspired by the Massachusetts model.

Several plans for reforming the national system include the requirement, in place in Massachusetts, that individuals buy health insurance, just as they must buy auto insurance.

President Barack Obama opposed the idea during his campaign against Hillary Clinton to be the Democratic presidential nominee last year, but has since signaled he'll sign such a measure if it is passed by Congress.

"If you went back five years, you would never be discussing an individual mandate, but it has become a standard part of the national discussion" because of Massachusetts, said Stuart Altman, a Brandeis University healthcare professor who advised Obama during the campaign.

"I think it's fair to say that many components of the Massachusetts plan will be in any plan that could pass" in Washington, Altman said.

FREE COVERAGE FOR STATE'S POOREST

The Massachusetts system also requires employers to offer coverage to their workers, to pay a portion of the insurance premium and provide a range of plan choices.

For those who can't afford it, the state provides subsidized or free plans based on a person's income.

The state system features a body known as "The Connector" which regulates the plans that individuals can buy through their employers.

The number of uninsured state residents has fallen to just 167,000 of the state's 6.5 million people, down from between 400,000 to 650,000 uninsured before the new regulations.