Massachusetts Medical Society Welcomes Focus, Heightened Effort on Proposals for Universal Health Care
State physicians' organizations welcomes efforts to achieve universal health care coverage
Waltham, MA (PRWEB) April 8, 2005
The Massachusetts Medical Society said today it welcomed the continued enthusiastic focus on the effort to provide universal health care coverage for Massachusetts citizens, as evidenced by separate proposals issued today by Governor Mitt Romney and Senate President Robert Travaglini.
Alan C. Woodward, M. D., president of the statewide association of physicians, said “I applaud and congratulate the governor and our Senate leaders on their efforts. It appears now that we are gaining the political will to establish universal coverage in the Commonwealth. We still have a long way to go, and it will take cooperation, courage and compromise, but I believe we are moving in the right direction to achieve the objective.”
Woodward said universal access to care has long been a goal of the Massachusetts Medical Society, whose members number more than 18,000 physicians throughout the state. “While we have one of the lowest rates of uninsured in the nation at between 8-9 percent according to figures from the Urban Institute, reaching this goal is essential,” said Woodward. “That percentage may be small, but it translates to more than 530,000 individuals without coverage for care.”
“The uninsured live sicker, and die younger,” said Woodward. “We have a moral imperative to ensure that all citizens have access to basic health care. It is critical that physicians contribute to the process of finding ways to assure that our patients can get access to necessary health care, and we will be working to achieve consensus and move the issue forward to resolution.”
In 2003, the Society established a Task Force on Universal Health Care and Health Systems Reforms to take its first steps on fact-finding and information gathering. Within the last year, Woodward established a Massachusetts Medical Society Task Force on Universal Access, whose primary focus was finding and supporting a plan of specific actions and principles that will help the state provide universal coverage.
The Task Force is in the process of undertaking analyses of the many proposals put forth that seek to achieve universal coverage. Among those are the plans proposed by Health Care for All, the Health Care for Massachusetts Campaign (Constitutional Amendment), The Roadmap to Coverage from Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Single Payer Advocates/MassCare, American Medical Association, and Governor RomneyÂ’s Commonwealth Care Initiatives, as well as those plans currently emerging.
The Massachusetts Medical Society supports universal coverage that incorporates the five principles from the Institute of Medicine’s January 2004 report, “Insuring American’s Health: Principles and Recommendations.” The report recommended that health care coverage should be (1) universal, (2) continuous, (3) affordable to individuals and families, (4) affordable and sustainable for society, and (5) should enhance health and well-being by being effective, efficient, safe, timely, patient-centered, and equitable.
The Massachusetts Medical Society, with some 18,300 physicians and student members, is dedicated to educating and advocating for the patients and physicians of Massachusetts. The Society publishes The New England Journal of Medicine, one of the worldÂ’s leading medical journals; the Journal Watch family of professional newsletters covering 11 specialties; and AIDS Clinical Care. The Society is also a leader in continuing medical education for health care professionals throughout Massachusetts. Founded in 1781, MMS is the oldest continuously operating medical society in the country. For more information, visit http://www. massmed. org (http://www. massmed. org)
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