Joint Committee on Health Care Financing; Hearing on Accessibility Legislation (Senate Bill 2042, et al); Testimony of Chris Anderson, MHTC

The Massachusetts High Technology Council was formed in 1977 by technology CEOs to make Massachusetts the most competitive place in which to create, operate, and expand high tech businesses. That remains our mission today. Council members employ hundreds of thousands of skilled workers in all of Massachusetts’s key technology sectors, including computer hardware, life sciences, software, medical products, semiconductor, and defense technology and telecommunications. Our members include the executive leadership of tech employers such as EMC, Boston Scientific, Analog Devices, Genzyme, and Allegro Microsystems.
Each year, High Tech Council CEOs rate their top policy priorities through our annual survey. We break out the survey into policy areas which are critical to a competitive high tech economy: Fiscal/economic policy, education and workforce training, public infrastructure and health care. It’s no surprise that fiscal policy concerns tend to dominate the top rankings every year, but this year, a number of health care items made their way into the top 10 items on our agenda. Technology employers typically offer the most generous employee medical benefit plans of any industry, but in recent years have been staggered by the cost of double-digit premium increases each and every year.

This committee knows full well that there is no magic elixir for the health care system, either in Massachusetts or nationally. There are however, many specific actions we can take in Massachusetts to improve access, quality and cost efficiency. The Legislature, led by this committee, deserves a great deal of credit for addressing important issues in recent years, such as reforms to the uncompensated care pool and requiring a fiscal impact review of any new health care mandates.

The Council hopes that the committee and the Legislature consider the following issues as you continue to push for health care reform:

• Reject the temptation to create employer mandates or new taxes to improve access. Massachusetts must do something to address the nearly 500,000 uninsured residents of the state, but this should be done without new taxes on businesses or on the residents of the Commonwealth. The state should instead embrace a carrot approach that encourages employers to offer health care coverage to their employees through tax credits or other methods. While we are pleased that Senate Bill 2042 stops short of imposing an employer mandate, the so-called “free rider” charge to the uncompensated care pool creates a slippery slope and could result in a back-door tax on employers who already provide adequate health coverage. Instead the state should further tighten its eligibility regulations for the pool and reimburse community health centers at an appropriate level below that of acute care hospitals.
• Create a system for cost and quality transparency. We must push for transparency in the state’s health care delivery system so that patients, employers, insurers and providers understand the costs and quality of services being provided at health care centers throughout the state. In every other area of business, consumers can have access to pricing and quality differentials that exist throughout the marketplace, and then make decisions accordingly. For the state’s health care system to work properly, easy-to-access price and quality information must become a reality. This effort has been led by Charlie Baker of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, and by Representative Deleo in the House budget process. The High Tech Council is working to create a program for i