Jon Kingsdale of the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority in Massachusetts told Mitchell that his state's recently implemented program, which requires every resident to have insurance and every employer to offer it or face a financial penalty, already has stimulated competition among insurance companies and driven down the cost of coverage, especially for individual, nongroup purchasers. Benefit packages have also be-come more comprehensive, he said.
Kingsdale noted that Massachusetts was motivated to deelop the Connector project in response to the threatened loss of $385 million in federal subsidies. The lesson, he said, is that “sticks are as important as car-rots" when it comes to providing incentives for health system innovation.
throat nose specialists
In Vermont, the development of the Catamount Health Plan was largely driven by “the growing insecurity of health care consumers," said James Leddy, a former state legislator and a consultant on health care reform.
No comments:
Post a Comment