Managed care is suddenly in intensive care, in danger of dying, in the state that was supposed to have tamed the healthcare monster--the state that spends more on medicine, gets better results, trains more doctors, says "we're number one" in healthcare, and we're still militantly unhappy. By a 2-to-1 margin, a patients' and doctors' rebellion is threatening to pass a ballot initiative in Massachusetts that would un-manage care by restoring free choice of specialists, putting a 10 percent cap on the non-medical overhead of HMOs.
It would ban for-profit managed-care companies. And it would demand universal health coverage by the year 2002. To Al Gore, George W. Bush, and all the established powers in Massachusetts: a vote for Question 5 says: prescription coverage under Medicare is tokenism; a patient bill-of-rights is a placebo; incremental improvement won't do. Who's willing to take a chance on a healthcare revolution, this hour on the Connection. (Hosted by Christopher Lydon)
