Health

It isn’t clear that major state legislation is needed to advance experimentation with new health care cost-control models in Massachusetts. It may be primarily within the proper role of the executive branch to collaborate with federal Medicare and Medicaid administrators and move forward.

I attended an information session on health care reform ran by Representative Hogan, Jessica Constantino of AARP and Deb Thompson of the PASS Group (Public Advocacy and Support Strategies) a couple of weeks ago. The material that was handed out and the presentation given were very informative, and I thought what I learned could be useful to constituents, especially for senior citizens and those on Medicare.

In 2008, Massachusetts passed a law prohibiting gifts by drug and device companies to doctors. I voted for the ban then. After revisiting the issue, I continue to support the ban. I will listen carefully to the arguments on the floor, but I expect to vote against repeal.

I’ve recently received a number of emails like the one appearing below urging me to contact local hospitals to push them to adopt infection control protocols. If anyone wants to take the lead in thinking through how it would be effective to advance this issue in Massachusetts, I’d be delighted to hear from them.

A couple of constituents have recently been in touch with me to urge that everyone be required by law to execute a health care proxy. Your thoughts?

Hi Will, As Faith mentioned in her post, maybe stricter safety precautions and/or regulations coupled with strong parental supervisor may prevent such tragedies from occurring in the future.