Cape Care and health care news from Cape Cod and Massachusetts
Cape Cod Times - December 6, 2006 - By ROBIN LORD, STAFF WRITER
Positive response in most Cape towns for the so-called Cape Care single payer plan has energized the group, said Provincetown physician Dr. Brian O'Malley, a member of the ad hoc steering group.
A single payer plan is one in which health services are paid by one central administrative body that collects fees and distributes payments to health care providers.
''I truly believe we will succeed with this, and I wouldn't have said that a year ago,'' O'Malley said.
Falmouth Town Meeting in October was the 10th on Cape Cod this year to pass a resolution calling for the development of a single payer model. Town meetings last spring in Chatham, Dennis and Sandwich were the only ones to reject the nonbinding resolution. Barnstable Town Council approved it by a 10-2 vote in August. Mashpee did not have the resolution on its warrant.
Next month, the team of Cape Care volunteers will launch a series of community meetings around the region to hear what residents want in a universal health program. The first will be from 9:30 a.m. to noon on Jan. 6 at the Harwich Community Center.
While the specifics and exact cost are unknown, the idea of Cape Care is to cover all Barnstable County residents through a county tax. A health policy board would determine the benefits package and formulate policy.
Proponents say Cape Care would end up costing less than current commercial plans because it would reduce administrative costs, eliminate large corporate insurance profits, better coordinate care, and allow for volume purchasing of drugs and supplies.
Boston University professor Alan Sager believes a program like Cape Care is needed ''now more than ever.''
Sager has serious reservations about the state's new health care plan, which would require all residents without insurance to buy one of the state-sponsored plans by July or face financial penalties. The poorest residents will not have monthly premiums, but low-income adults will have to pay premiums ranging from 1.8 to 4.7 percent of their income.
The state estimates 14,000 Barnstable County residents are without health insurance, but the county figure is nearly triple that.
Approaches like Cape Care's aim to squeeze out some of the waste from the health care dollar, Sager said.
Comparing the new state plan to what Cape Care proposes is unfair, said John McDonough, executive director of Health Care for All, a Boston-based health advocacy nonprofit. The state plan attempts to address access for the roughly 375,000 uninsured in the state, while the Cape proposal is trying to reform the financing structure of the health care system, he said.
''If the folks on the Cape can figure out a way to have a quite radical transformation of how to address the financial, legal and technical aspects, then more power to them.''
Robin Lord can be reached
at rlord@capecodonline.com.
(Published: December 6, 2006)
Cape Care moves forward
Advocates of a new health care initiative that would cover all Cape Cod residents through a common tax will press on despite a new state health plan that also aims to insure everyone.Positive response in most Cape towns for the so-called Cape Care single payer plan has energized the group, said Provincetown physician Dr. Brian O'Malley, a member of the ad hoc steering group.
A single payer plan is one in which health services are paid by one central administrative body that collects fees and distributes payments to health care providers.
''I truly believe we will succeed with this, and I wouldn't have said that a year ago,'' O'Malley said.
Falmouth Town Meeting in October was the 10th on Cape Cod this year to pass a resolution calling for the development of a single payer model. Town meetings last spring in Chatham, Dennis and Sandwich were the only ones to reject the nonbinding resolution. Barnstable Town Council approved it by a 10-2 vote in August. Mashpee did not have the resolution on its warrant.
Next month, the team of Cape Care volunteers will launch a series of community meetings around the region to hear what residents want in a universal health program. The first will be from 9:30 a.m. to noon on Jan. 6 at the Harwich Community Center.
While the specifics and exact cost are unknown, the idea of Cape Care is to cover all Barnstable County residents through a county tax. A health policy board would determine the benefits package and formulate policy.
Proponents say Cape Care would end up costing less than current commercial plans because it would reduce administrative costs, eliminate large corporate insurance profits, better coordinate care, and allow for volume purchasing of drugs and supplies.
Boston University professor Alan Sager believes a program like Cape Care is needed ''now more than ever.''
Sager has serious reservations about the state's new health care plan, which would require all residents without insurance to buy one of the state-sponsored plans by July or face financial penalties. The poorest residents will not have monthly premiums, but low-income adults will have to pay premiums ranging from 1.8 to 4.7 percent of their income.
The state estimates 14,000 Barnstable County residents are without health insurance, but the county figure is nearly triple that.
Approaches like Cape Care's aim to squeeze out some of the waste from the health care dollar, Sager said.
Comparing the new state plan to what Cape Care proposes is unfair, said John McDonough, executive director of Health Care for All, a Boston-based health advocacy nonprofit. The state plan attempts to address access for the roughly 375,000 uninsured in the state, while the Cape proposal is trying to reform the financing structure of the health care system, he said.
''If the folks on the Cape can figure out a way to have a quite radical transformation of how to address the financial, legal and technical aspects, then more power to them.''
Robin Lord can be reached
at rlord@capecodonline.com.
(Published: December 6, 2006)
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