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MA Gov. Deval Patrick signs sweeping bill to overhaul health care industry (worst-er)
The Republican ^ | August 6, 2012 | Dan Ring

Posted on 08/06/2012 8:35:49 PM PDT by libertarian27

BOSTON — Gov. Deval L. Patrick on Monday signed a comprehensive new bill to control costs in health care, calling it the "next big step forward" in overhauling the health industry.

The 349-page legislation is complex enough that several leaders of hospitals in Western Massachusetts said they are unsure of the bill's financial effects on their institutions.

"This is your house," Patrick told a crowd that gathered inside Nurses' Hall at the Statehouse to celebrate the signing of the bill into law. "This is your day. This is your bill."

The bill, submitted by Patrick in February of last year, seeks to make Massachusetts the first state in the nation to limit the annual growth in health care costs to no more than the yearly growth in the state's economy.

"Today we become the first to crack the code on cost," said Patrick, who was flanked by members of his administration, House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo and Attorney General Martha Coakley.

Several hospital leaders in Western Massachusetts said they need more time to study the bill in order to determine its financial effects on the hospitals.

"We're still trying to understand the implications of this bill in terms of the financial impact,' said Dennis W. Chalke, chief financial officer for Baystate Health in Springfield, which includes Baystate Medical Center in Springfield. "We have a lot of questions. There are a lot of things that are not clear to us at this point."

(Excerpt) Read more at masslive.com ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: devalpatrick; healthcare; obama; obamacare
Hold onto your rectal thermometer - this is Romneycare bumped up to Mini-Obama (Gov. Deval Patrick) Standards.
1 posted on 08/06/2012 8:36:00 PM PDT by libertarian27
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To: libertarian27

“Thank you, Willard ! Couldn’t have done Socialist medicine without you !” — Love, Debbil Patrick & Zero


2 posted on 08/06/2012 8:40:32 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (If you like lying Socialist dirtbags, you'll love Slick Willard)
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To: libertarian27

” - - - signed a comprehensive new bill to control costs in health care, calling it the “next big step forward”

Duh, in Obamaspeak the word “Forward” means backward, and the phrase “control costs” means spend like a Solyndra!


3 posted on 08/06/2012 8:44:44 PM PDT by Graewoulf ((Traitor John Roberts' Obama"care" violates Sherman Anti-Trust Law, AND the U.S. Constitution.))
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To: libertarian27
Price controls. Those always work, right?

Medical advances? Technical innovations? They'll probably be harder to come by if profit has basically been outlawed. Oh well, I guess people will just have to die -- it's the very cheapest form of health care.

4 posted on 08/06/2012 8:45:28 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (Roger Taney? Not a bad Chief Justice. John Roberts? A really awful Chief Justice.)
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To: libertarian27

“This is your bill.”

(but, you didn’t write it...or read it...or approve it.)


5 posted on 08/06/2012 8:50:35 PM PDT by Mortrey (Impeach President Soros)
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To: libertarian27

Close the hospitals, then.


6 posted on 08/06/2012 8:51:01 PM PDT by FoxInSocks ("Hope is not a course of action." -- M. O'Neal, USMC)
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To: Mortrey

“This is your bill.”

(but, you didn’t write it...or read it...or approve it.)


But you do get to pay it.


7 posted on 08/06/2012 9:24:41 PM PDT by cableguymn (For the first time in my life. I fear my country's government.)
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To: libertarian27

Wait. What? I thought Romney already magically fixed all this.


8 posted on 08/06/2012 10:01:44 PM PDT by Psycho_Bunny (OWS = The Great American Snivel War)
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To: Psycho_Bunny

Hello Texas you are about to get a ton of new Doctors.


9 posted on 08/06/2012 10:12:03 PM PDT by scooby321 (AMS)
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To: scooby321

When Texas passed tort reform several years ago, more staff had to be added to the state agency that vets doctors wanting to come into the state. I don’t think that trend has stopped. This is a better place for all business to flourish, even doctors.

This is, of course, before Hussein’s abomination of healthcare hits the state. I know the state will resist Hussein’s “mandates” as much as possible.


10 posted on 08/06/2012 11:00:10 PM PDT by Marcella (The power to tax is the power to destroy.)
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To: ClearCase_guy
Price controls. Those always work, right?

Sure they'll work if Massachusetts builds a huge wall with barbed wire around the state to keep physicians, med. technicians and nurses from escaping. ;-)

11 posted on 08/06/2012 11:40:28 PM PDT by Rightwing Conspiratr1
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To: ClearCase_guy

They’ll be free riders on the medical innovation the rest of us pay for for now—after all, MA is big in the medical innovation business itself.

But shortages, which had already been on the upswing post-Willard, should really become acute there soon. Acute shortage care!


12 posted on 08/07/2012 1:51:47 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
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