Massachusetts hospitals express opposition to Medicare for All

The Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association (MHA) has recently expressed its opposition to the concept of Medicare for All, claiming that a single-payer system could result in an underfunded health care system that could ultimately harm health care quality across the country.

An April 17, 2019 Commonwealth Magazine article noted that while Massachusetts health care providers and insurers have generally favored expanded insurance coverage, the current Medicare for All proposals vow to provide more people with coverage while simultaneously driving down costs. “Massachusetts has always been for coverage,” said Nancy Kane, professor of management at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “We have been battling out cost control for as long as I’ve been involved, which is 40 years.”

Harvard Chan School’s John McDonough, professor of the practice of public health, told Commonwealth Magazine that he wasn’t surprised that the MHA opposes a publicly funded Medicare for All system, because large health and hospital systems in the state—the primary funders of MHA—are the biggest beneficiaries of high rates paid by private insurers.

Read the Commonwealth Magazine article: Medicare for All big hit with pols — but not Mass. hospitals