Baker Warns Beacon Hill Of Peril If Washington Republicans Don't Act Responsibly On Health Care

Gov. Charlie Baker warned state health care officials Monday to be prepared for instability in Washington that could drive up costs for Massachusetts' own health care system.

Baker told members of the state's Health Policy commission that there's good news and bad news when it comes to Congress's failure to move health care legislation. Baker's own analysts determined this year that repeal of the Affordable Care Act and replacement with a block grant system for MediCaid would have greatly reduced funding to Massachusetts

While lawmakers in Washington did not deliver on the promise to dismantle ObamaCare, they're also letting several federal programs expire by not acting to renew them.

"So, while their lack of action on some of the issues around ACA reform may have been good news, there’s a whole bunch of other things where lack of action creates real issues for everybody, and in a very immediate term," Baker said.

Namely, Baker's worried about Congress's failure to reauthorize the Community Health Center and the Children's Health Insurance programs, both of which send funding to the state and both of which Congress has not reauthorized for the new fiscal year.

Baker's Executive Office of Health Services estimates that failure to reauthorize CHIP would result in a reduction of $295 million a year in federal funding for the state, impacting 160,000 children enrolled in the program. The state spent $720 million last fiscal year on CHIP-enrolled children and received $633 million in reimbursements from the federal government. 

Baker says he wants Congress to debate a bipartisan bill to stabilize the ACA soon and has been working with fellow governors to push Congress into reauthorizing CHIP.

The next step in Massachusetts struggle to control the growing costs of its own health care system will take place in the Legislature this fall. The state's current budget includes a year's worth of cost cuts to MassHealth, the state's MediCaid program. Lawmakers in the spring rejected Baker's plan for how to achieve those savings, leaving Democrats in the House and Senate on the hook for coming up with ways to lower MassHealth spending.

Senate President Rosenberg updated the commission on the Senate's efforts to draw up a cost containment plan that can be debated with the House and delivered to Baker to sign later this year. Rosenberg was also weary of the chaos Massachusetts could be exposed to as the federal situation devolves.

"It puts a burden on MassHealth, it puts a burden on everybody and we're very worried about it but because of what's going on in Washington you can't try to adjust every day based on what's going on in Washington. You got to have your goals in mind and keep moving toward them," Rosenberg said.

Rosenberg told reporters that a working group of senators is busy drawing up a cost-containment plan to be debated this fall. Rosenberg did not say whether the Senate's plan would include portions of the plan Baker put forward to crack down on MassHealth enrollment while securing private-sector coverage for poor workers.