The Boston Globe lead story today is "A handshake that made healthcare history." It might at well be "How the leading hospital combination and insurance company in Massachusetts ganged up to rip off everybody in the Commonwealth."
The gist of the story: In 1993, Massachusetts General Hospital and the Brigham and Women's Hospital, the two most prestigious hospitals in the Boston area, combined to form Partners HealthCare. By 2000, Partners had sufficient power to force Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBS/MA) to increase its reimbursement rate to Partners, a pattern that continues to this day, by a total of 75% since 2000.
Within a few months, Partners used this unwritten agreement to strongarm Tufts Health Plan, a competitor of BCBS/MA, to increase its reimbursement rate also. The article estimates that the cost of medical care in Massachusetts is now more than $900 per family above the national average. More to be outraged about after the fold:
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