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Sidewalk Superintendent Series: Parking Spaces or Public Places?
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /by Steve PoftakA unwelcome phenomena in Boston is the use of public space for parking of vehicles on seemingly ‘official’ business. In a city where I’ve seen homeowners struggle for years to get approval for modest curb cuts, I marvel at the ability of these parkers to convert sidewalks and plazas into personal spots. Exhibit 1 is the John Adams Courthouse. Recently refurbished at an expense of $150 million, the redone courthouse has injected some liveliness into the previous moribund plaza between it and Government Center Plaza. New restaurants and outdoor seating have also helped. So what was the next logical step? Turn the brick plaza in front of the courthouse into a parking lot. Now diners get to sit next to […]
Is Cake Health the Answer to Our Health Care Cost Problem?
/1 Comment/in Blog, Blog: Healthcare, News /byI just stumbled upon a great app that is helping individuals become better consumers of health care AND understand the piles of health care related paper work sent to their homes. It is available at: CakeHealth.com If we are to move in the direction of more consumer driven health care, we will need LOTS more where this came from. BCBS of MA has mentioned an app they are developing to help control costs by directing patients to nearby hospitals with lower rates. So lets hope other local insurers get on board and make this information available to their members in some form in the future.
Examining Pension Talking Points
/1 Comment/in Blog, Blog: Pensions, News /byThe state Senate approved a pension reform package yesterday. Reviewing the Senate’s debate, there are two oft-repeated claims from reform opponents that are worth parsing. Claim 1: State employees pay for their own pension. Reality: This will be true only for some new employees and only if a number of assumptions hold up over time. Those assumptions include existing rates of salary increase and service time duration. The assumption with the biggest potential downside risk is the continued achievement of the 8.25% expected rate of return for the state pension fund over the career of these new employees. There is a considerable school of thought, within academia and the investment community, that the return environment will be lower in the […]
In New England, Massachusetts leads job growth – for state employees
/4 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Transparency, News /byI reached out about a month and a half ago to Governor Patrick’s office to see if they could help understand how, after bipartisan support for cutting state jobs through the recession, the state actually added to its payroll. As usual, despite numerous phone calls and e-mails, I was told someone would “be in touch” … and then nothing. While I still hold out hope that one day we’ll get an answer about how headcounts grew throughout round after round of supposed layoffs, it might be more practical in the meantime to compare the Commonwealth to its peers to better understand how other state governments have handled a reduction in income when it comes to their staffing levels. Massachusetts leads the […]
Patrick Admin’s Misdiagnosis on ACA Transparency
/2 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Healthcare, Healthcare, Transparency /byThis post was co-written by Michael Morisy. During this year’s budget debate, Pioneer asked many questions about the reality behind optimistic health care cost predictions which, if flawed, could leave the state facing a $900 million budget hole next year alone. The passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) could make things even worse down the line – if it survives judicial challenges. But as much as we’d like to share the state’s optimism, we have had an incredibly hard time getting answers to some basic questions about the underlying assumptions that the state may have about future health care costs. Back on April 9, we requested documents from the Massachusetts Health Connector that discuss the financial […]