Speaker says ballooning MassHealth costs must be addressed
File photo
The state budget will need to address MassHealth costs, DeLeo said.
The House budget for next fiscal year will likely address ballooning MassHealth costs, according to Speaker Robert DeLeo, who made it crystal clear Tuesday he does not yet want to step into that policy debate.
At a business breakfast Tuesday, Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce President Jim Rooney asked DeLeo about two measures proposed by Gov. Charlie Baker, which the chamber opposes: a $2,000 assessment per fulltime employee on businesses that fail to meet proposed health coverage obligations and caps on providers' ability to increase the costs for medical services.
"Thank you very much for that great opening question. I really, really appreciate your friendship - after all the nice things I said about you," DeLeo joked as Rooney stood to his right, smiling. "I still want to grow that convention center. The only person that ever applauded me for that idea."
In case it wasn't obvious how DeLeo received the inquiry from Rooney, the former head of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority who long ago was MBTA deputy general manager, DeLeo said, "I am trying to avoid the question."
Later when an audience member at the chamber breakfast asked DeLeo about his position on a proposed constitutional amendment installing a 4 percent surtax on incomes over $1 million, which DeLeo voted to advance, the speaker took another jab at Rooney.
"Most of the people here are millionaires," DeLeo said, to laughter from the audience of business executives, lawmakers and lobbyists gathered at the Colonnade Hotel. "At least this one is. He's got a couple of pension plans."
DeLeo patted Rooney on the back, and the chamber president said, "Payback for the question."
While DeLeo was reluctant to say whether the House would follow the governor's lead on tackling rising costs and MassHealth enrollment, he told reporters the House will likely include an approach to the issue in its budget, which it will take up this spring.
"I think it would probably have to be because of the fact that we've got some real cost concerns there," DeLeo said. He said, "We have to address some of these issues. The question is how."
The Baker administration estimates the assessment would generate $300 million over a six-month period, helping offset the estimated $600 million in increased Medicaid costs in fiscal 2018. MassHealth covered 1.93 million people in fiscal 2017. The governor included his approach in the $40.5 billion fiscal 2018 budget bill he filed with the Legislature in January. Public hearings on his budget bill begin on Thursday.
DeLeo told Rooney that House Majority Leader Ron Mariano and Health Care Financing House Chairman Jeffrey Sanchez are "very much involved in this issue." House Ways and Means Chairman Brian Dempsey oversees the House budget process, and DeLeo said he is talking to Dempsey about the matter as well.
Sanchez told the News Service he is grappling with the governor's proposal.
"Right now it's fluid," Sanchez said. He said, "The governor threw something really different at us, and right now we have to try and be thoughtful and digest it."
Rooney has previously aired his concerns about the idea and reiterated them Tuesday.
"Price caps have never worked. They're not a good solution. They're really something that gets tried when there seems to be no other alternative, and then they go away," Rooney told reporters. Of the assessments, he said, "There's a penalty being imposed on people that are doing the right thing."
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments