Massachusetts plan may place limits on patients’ hospital options

By Liz Kowalczyk
Globe Staff / October 11, 2009

The state’s ambitious plan to shake up how providers are paid could have a hidden price for patients: Controlling Massachusetts’ soaring medical costs, many health care leaders believe, may require residents to give up their nearly unlimited freedom to go to any hospital and specialist they want.

Efforts to keep patients in a defined provider network, or direct them to lower-cost hospitals could be unpopular, especially in a state where more than 40 percent of hospital care is provided in expensive academic medical centers and where many insurance policies allow patients access to large numbers of providers. the rest

Paying the Health Tax in Massachusetts
Be warned: Even people with good insurance will risk fines if mandatory insurance becomes the national law

Obamacare: Cost of Insurance Policies Will Soar
The health insurance industry has issued a report warning that under the current Senate version of Obamacare, the cost of private insurance will soar, apparently because the coverage requirement aspect has been weakened significantly.

Regulatory Czar Sunstein: Remove organs from terminally ill against their wills
President Obama's newly confirmed regulatory czar defended the possibility of removing organs from terminally ill patients without their permission.