Thursday, August 23, 2012
Canute the Great and Controlling the Cost of Health Care
About a thousand years ago, Canute the Great, a Dane, was
King of England and a big chunk of Scandinavia . Legend has it that one day he set his throne by the sea shore and commanded the
tide to halt and not wet his feet and robes.
I am reminded of
that by the recent enactment of another piece of health reform legislation by
the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts Massachusetts
Much faith seems
to be placed in the conversion of the payment system from fee-for-service to
HMO-style capitation (euphemistically referred to as global payment). The law requires Medicaid and state employee
plans to convert, but only urges private insurance to do so. Commentators doubted that the private sector
would rush to comply.
According to
reports, the tide did not respond to Canute’s command. We’ll see if health care providers in Massachusetts
