Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker Makes Last Pitch On Health Plan Changes

“The bill we are here to support today is designed to create positive financial incentives for health care providers and insurers to rethink their service delivery and investment decisions,” Baker told the committee.

Not unlike the legislation he first proposed nearly three years ago, which became yet another political casualty of COVID-19, Baker’s newest plan aims to force providers to increase primary care and behavioral health spending by 30%, without altering already mandated spending targets.

“Our proposal establishes a primary care and behavioral health spending target to reorient the way insurers and health care providers invest in these services which are underfunded by today’s payment models,” Baker said.

Time is not on Baker’s side. This will be his last term as governor, he announced in December, and the legislature will adjourn at the end of July. Further, the House set a June 1 deadline for the Health Care Financing Committee to decide on Baker’s proposal.

Rep. Jay Livingstone, a Democrat from the Back Bay, asked Baker if this sort of proposal has a model or has been studied before.

“Are there any studies out that this proposal would make, would come out the way you hope it would?” he asked.

Baker said that many European countries already prioritize this type of care.

“The single biggest difference between their model and our model is they spend a lot more money — by design — on primary care and behavioral health. As a result, they don’t get what we often see, which is so many people struggling to manage their way though complex medical conditions,” Baker said.

Sen Cindy Friedman, the committee’s co-chair, acknowledged the clock is running short.

“It’s almost the end of April. There’s an enormous number of things on the plate of the Legislature,” she said.

“This bill has really important things in it that I know that we care very, very much about, both the Legislature and the executive branch. If we are limited in what we are able to do, are there things in this bill that you believe are of such high priority that you would say, ‘We gotta do this?’ ” she asked.

Baker said that though his priority remains primary care and behavioral health he knows it will require a paradigm shift in the industry. Seeming to acknowledge size of the task he set before the legislature, Baker apologized.

“It’s probably the hardest to implement, which I apologize for,” he said.

Herald wire services contributed to this report.

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