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Together We Can…Fight Adverse Selection

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Charlie Baker and Deval Patrick seem to agree on something. In June 2009, the then-CEO of Harvard Pilgrim complained that loose enrollment rules were letting individuals hop in and out insurance policies, depending on when they needed a high volume of services. The Governor’s Small Business Jobs Bill tries to limit that practice by permitting two open enrollment periods a year for the purchase of individual coverage. I just got the GOV’s Bill, so I don’t understand exactly what he means by that. (Will you only have two chances per year to get coverage as an individual? What if you lose group coverage at a point in time outside the open enrollment period?) I’ll post a clarification once I fully […]

Don't Say That – Deval Patrick Edition

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My youngest has the charming habit of responding to my unwelcome comments with a wag of her finger and “Don’t Say That” sternly delivered. With that in mind, I’ll kick off a new feature on this blog. Today’s example is Governor Deval Patrick in his address to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. In his closing remarks, he relates: ..But I am not motivated by the usual things that motivate people in elected office. I am not motivated by ambition for higher or other office, or by entitlement or powerful connections urging me on. I am motivated by simple gratitude…. At first read, it sounds like a boast about his own virtue, but read it again, its both a boast […]

Giving the Convention Center Its Due

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Let’s hear it for the MCCA — they just posted their audited financials online. Good for them. A tip of the pen to Jim Rooney and Mac Daniel. And to make it more impressive, they did it on a day while they are simutaneously dealing with a State House protest by Patrick Administration appointee (and union head) Janice Loux about the Authority’s new food service vendor. Let’s hope the other authorities follow suit. They may have to — the Senate’s economic development legislation (filed yesterday) contains no less than 12 provisions about transparency at the quasi-publics — including the disclosure of audited financials.

NY and IL Always Make Me Feel Better

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This has been a tough year for MA politics, with multiple indictments and arrests of public officials. But we always can fall back on our friends in New York and Illinois to make us feel better. New York, fresh off a summer of discontent where leadership of the Senate shifted back and forth (at times, it seemed based on who could physically control the chamber), is now facing some weird sort of slow-motion-sorta-crisis with Governor Paterson. Paterson is desperately unpopular and the NYTimes, allegedly has some sort of ‘bombshell’ story that it is preparing with some observers whispering that it might force him out of office. Its gotten to the point where a Republican gubernatorial candidate has actually called for […]

Small thought on TV personalities

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I have always been more interested in U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan – what he is about and how he thinks about stuff – than any other of the president’s entourage because he seems real and he seem to really care without wearing it on his sleeve. He’s not the best speaker, and he’s not “colorful” or a “celebrity.” Nor does he cultivate that. On the other hand reading in The Hill about the flak that Rahm Emanuel is getting for the “collapse of healthcare reform” seems only poetic justice. The Hill‘s Alexander Bolton notes: The emerging consensus among critics in both chambers is that Emanuel’s lack of Senate experience slowed President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority. Bolton is […]