Last week, SHARE joined other members of the Coalition to Protect Community Care to talk with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office about Mass General Brigham’s (MGB) proposal to expand to Westborough, Westwood and Woburn, which we have reported about here previously.
The Attorney General’s office wanted to understand why each group objected to the MGB plan. SHARE Representative Janet Wilder spoke about our concern that a large MGB facility in Westborough would lead to layoffs at UMass Memorial due to the loss of patient volume. In addition, MGB is the most expensive care system in Massachusetts – if the cost of health insurance rises, that makes it more difficult for us to negotiate for raises and other benefits. The Mass Nurses Association representatives talked about MGB’s focus on wealthier communities that don’t need more options for healthcare. Representatives of the nonprofit organizations United Way and Centro talked about how much UMass Memorial has helped them provide services to their communities during the pandemic. Doctors representing independent private practices talked about how hard they are working to keep care affordable: Why would the state authorize the expansion of the most expensive care? A representative of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce talked about the effect of more expensive health insurance on small businesses.
“It seemed to me that the Attorney General’s Office really wanted to know how they could help,” said Janet Wilder. The next step is the completion of the independent cost analysis of the effect of MGB’s proposal, which we hope will evaluate the proposal’s impact on the cost of care and on equity. SHARE will continue to make our members’ voices heard in this process.