While the State talks of and tries to implement health care reform today’s Globe headlines another double-digit increase in health care inflation for employer covered health care plans. The increases, pegged at between 8-12 percent, are amongst the highest in the nation. This has been a constant for years now, and severely undermines any attempt to increase coverage through state action. And some experts believe that this inflationary cycle is unbreakable without a total overhaul of the system.

I see no end in sight to these increases,” said Stuart Altman, professor of national health policy and dean of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University in Waltham. “The only thing that’s going to stop this is a meltdown of our healthcare system.”

Methuen has Section 19 Coalition bargaining established, and I met yesterday with coalition representatives seeking to brainstorm ways to reduce inflation in health care at our level. News like this is simply another dagger pointed at municipalities, and just advances the day when people will come to realize that without cost containment any gains made in health care coverage will likely be fleeting. Read the Globe story at this link.