With all of the talk about bending the cost curve in health care Sixty Minutes aired a provocative segment tonight that is sure to ignite major and heated discussion. What did you think? What do we do to truly bend that curve, and is it even realistic to think cost containment can be achieved within our current political system?
http://cnettv.cnet.com/av/video/cbsnews/atlantis2/player-dest.swf
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Governor Deval Patrick yesterday called the State Legislature to task for going out of formal session, going to the state house press room personally to urge the Speaker to call the Legislature back into session. The Governor is upset with the lack of House action on an education bill that had been passed by the Senate that raised the state cap on Charter Schools, as well as a failure to fully close a $600 million dollar gap identified by the Governor’s budget team. The Governor took a swipe at the Speaker in the press room.
“It’s more than a little frustrating that they would leave for whatever it is, six or seven weeks, with so much of the Commonwealth’s vital business undone,’’ Patrick said during a rare, unscheduled visit to the State House press room.
“It’s my hope that the members will realize that their rules are of their own making, that they have it in their own power to work a couple of more days, or frankly, as long as it takes to get this work done.’’
The Speaker, through a spokesman, fired right back:
“Governor Patrick’s comments seem to be more about political necessity than ‘moral obligation,’ ’’ DeLeo spokesman Seth Gitell said in an e-mailed statement. “Speaker DeLeo’s obligation is to the Commonwealth’s schoolchildren, not Governor Patrick’s political calendar.’’
The Legislature left a few prominent items on the table, including the Quinn Bill funding cut advocated by the Governor, as well as the the recission of two paid holidays for Suffolk County, Bunker Hill Day and Evacuation Day. The House has left action on the Education Bill until January, giving anti-charter forces time to mobilize against the bill.
The animus now on display between the Governor and the Speaker does not portend well for future collaboration, and could lead to some bruising battles about how to close budget gaps that remain to be fully dealt with. The Speaker is not doing much speaking these days, as he has refused to return a call from the Governor. He seems as perturbed with Deval as Sal Dimasi was.
The Furniture Fixer New England store had its grand opening yesterday. The Merrimack Valley Chamber of Commerce joined owner Jonathan Anderson and his family as he opened his Furniture Repair shop in Railroad Square at 5 Pelham Street. Best of luck to Jon and his lovely family.
Majority Leader Harry Reid yesterday made the move that all have been awaiting, unveiling a Health Care Bill that will be the focus of an intense legislative battle in the Senate. Reid’s bill has received a positive fiscal score from the CBO, which estimates that the fiscal impact will shave about $130 billion from the deficit over the next decade. Reid has included a public option, albeit with an “opt-out option for the States. Reid has also included a tax on so called cadillac health plans, imposing a 40% tax on plans worth $8500 for individuals and $23,000 for families. Additionally he proposes to increase the medicare tax on high earners (200,000 individuals or $250,000 married would go from 1.45% to 1.95%), and in a move sure to send plastic surgeons into a rage proposes a 5% tax on elective “cosmetic surgery. Plenty to digest, and the fighting has already started, with Republican opposition appearing to be unanimous.
But Republicans dismissed it as “another trillion-dollar experiment,” in the words of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.). Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.) said the bill “may claim to be deficit-neutral, [but] it uses sleight-of-hand budgetary tricks by assuming unrealistic tax increases and Medicare cuts that members of Congress will not be willing to follow through on.”
Reid got some positive comments from the center of the Democratic Party, with Kent Conrad offering some praise.
Sen. Kent Conrad (N.D.), the budget chairman and a leading Democratic fiscal hawk, said after a briefing on the bill, “I was very impressed by what Senator Reid has done.”
Reid will be looking to get all sixty Democratic votes to stop the Republican filibuster, which would reduce his Senate vote requirement to 50 for final passage. A key player now becomes Independent Joe Lieberman, who has threatened to support a Republican filibuster. Reid is not out of the woods, but he is closer than many thought possible. The CBO letter to Reid is attached below, as is the bill itself.
Read the New York Times analysis of key differences between the House and Senate Health Care Bills.
Jacob Cohen was recognized at our last School Committee meeting for his outstanding achievement in math and science. An 800 on the SAT’s? WOW! I struggled to hit 800 combined English and Math! Great job Jacob.
Jacob scored a perfect 800 on his SAT’s in Mathematics
Reasons for Recognition:
Jacob presently takes AP Calculus, AP Physics, AP Biology, and AP English Literature. He is in the top 4% of his class with a 4.03 GPA and is ranked 18th out of 453.
Last year Jacob was one of two juniors who excelled in the UMASS Lowell Teams Academy Program. At Teams Jacob was in class with some of the top science and mathematics students in the Merrimack Valley while completing four rigourous interdisciplinary math, science, and engineering-technology courses as he was bused to UMASS Lowell each day from MHS. Jacob will be applying to Penn State, Cornell, WPI, and RPI. He plans on majoring in Nuclear Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or Biomedical Engineering. Although these majors are physics focused, Jake claims that math is his favorite subject because it is easy for him and the key component in all of his courses. Jacob has been described as not only very studious but also a very respectful young man who is always willing to lend a helping hand. He leads through his quiet confidence and with his responsible character.
The effort by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to find consensus that will get him sixty votes to consider health care reform in the Senate continues to be a difficult task, with the Congressional Budget Office playing a large role in that effort. Yesterday’s New York Times details his difficulties with the CBO scoring process, and how centrist Democrats are insisting on cost controls as well as extending coverage. Ben Nelson is a pretty good example:
“The message at times has gotten garbled, where it has been more about extending coverage to individuals than it has been about bending the cost curve,” said Senator Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska. “I think we need to control costs.”
Reid’s conundrum is not limited to centrist Democrats however. A potential tax on cadillac plans, included in the Senate version, is opposed by organized labor. If Reid drops the provision he needs to replace it, and the alternatives available to him will make it difficult to get to sixty. Reid is in a tough spot, and the fact that he will be in a tough re-elect fight next year has got to be weighing on him as he considers alternatives. Does Reid get to sixty? Right now he has to be considered a slight underdog. Read the Times story here.
And read about the head bean counter at the Congressional Budget Office here.
The President is focusing on the horrific job situation, and he here announces a job creation forum to be held in December. But regardless of forums today’s Boston Globe detailed (again) the huge hike coming for small business in the area of health care. A local company, Coady’s Towing, is looking at a 28% increase in health care costs next year. That translates to about $58,000 for that one company. The CFO at Coady’s is stunned by the increase.
“We’re a small company, and that’s a huge raise,’’ said Bouchard. “How much more can you expect an employer and its employees to contribute?’’
The answer to that question ends up being pretty straightforward. Cost shifting by all players, outright dropping of coverage in some cases, and certainly a perverse incentive to not hire anyone new. The cost shifting is highlighted in the Globe story:
According to Blue Cross, the majority of its customers have been redesigning their plans through “buydowns,’’ which use higher deductibles and other features to shift more of the cost to employees.
And Blue Cross of course highlights the fact that those companies that engage in this type of cost shifting can expect increases of “only” 10 to 12 percent. Wow. What a bargain.
It is the same story that has been occurring annually for years, and then folks express puzzlement at the fact that jobs are disappearing and not coming back. You can’t grow anything with numbers like that, especially jobs. Health care cost escalation needs to be addressed. If not I do not believe that the jobs situation will improve any time soon. Read the Globe story here.
Yes those old Wendy commercials, which Walter Mondale brought into political debate, have now been introduced in Methuen! Jamie Atkinson and George Scione have brought a new show called “Politically Active” to Methuen Public Access Television, and here is their first promo.
MAYOR MANZI NAMES KATE ZEHNTER AS NOVEMBER’S ARTIST OF THE MONTH
Methuen Artist’s Work on Display in the Mayor’s Office
Mayor William M. Manzi has named Kate Zehnter as November’s Artist of the Month. Kate has been an art educator and visual artist since graduating from Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, MA. The hard-edge oil narrative paintings with complimentary colors that emerged after attending college have been transformed since then into soft translucent multilayered acrylic paintings that represent light, passage of time and space. Examples of her new painting style with translucent images that appear and disappear as the viewer moves, are on display in the Mayor’s office at the Searles Building.
Kate has always been passionate about the importance of art and uses her teaching and artistic skills to teach Color and Design at Northern Essex Community College. The desire to make art has always been an important part of her life. In the 1980s, she concentrated her creative energy in fiber art specifically a joining technique known as Twining. Her one-person show of wearable art at the Whistler House Museum in Lowell, MA was a success. However, the desire to paint was ever present and while she continued to explore other mediums she always returned to her first art passion painting.
The Kate’s Imagery art web site http://www.katesimagery.com showcases all her mediums and artistic skills. On this web site one will see mini-tapestries, which push the boundaries of accepted crewelwork using thread as her paint to create a unique narrative image of scenes from her experiences while traveling.
“In my artwork, I let intuition and risk-taking lead me toward completion. At this point in time it becomes a visual record of my life at that moment. This fact, however, is often only obvious to me in retrospect. Since retiring from being a full-time high school art educator at Timberlane Regional HS, Plaistow, NH in 2008, it has been a delight to be a full time visual artist,” says Zehnter.
Mayor Manzi stated, “Kate is one of the many talented artists living in our community. It is an honor to display her cutting edge artwork. I encourage people to come to my office and view her colorful paintings.”
The Methuen Artist of the Month Program was created by Mayor Manzi three years ago in order to give members of the Methuen Arts Community a forum to display their work and to encourage participation in Methuen’s growing creative economy. Methuen artists interested in being considered for Artist of the Month should contact the Mayor’s Office.
Bill Manzi.com 