Mass. Governor Floats Bill To Curb Health Care Rate Hikes
This week, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) proposed legislation that would provide the state insurance commissioner with the authority to limit health care cost increases. The measure would allow state officials to review and reject prices charged by hospitals, health care providers and health insurance companies if their rates climb faster than levels of medical inflation. Health care provider groups are expected to oppose the legislation.
- "Patrick Wants Health Cost Veto" (Lazar et al., Boston Globe, 2/11).