Coalition Plans To Amplify Biz Voice In Health Care

New Coalition of Large and Small Employers Taking Shape

Saying purchasers are underrepresented in health care policy decision-making at the State House, a new coalition of large and small employers is taking shape to shine a spotlight on rising care costs and frame health care as a competitiveness issue.

Eileen McAnneny, known for her work at major business trade groups, will lead the Employer Coalition on Health, which lists an an assortment of business groups and employers among its founding members as well as the state Group Insurance Commission.

“As a small business, we are doing everything we can to offer good health insurance benefits to our employees, but businesses need state officials to do more to address health care affordability challenges,” Erin Calvo-Bacci, owner of CB Stuffer chocolate store in Swampscott, said in a statement released with news of the coalition’s launch. “These efforts are necessary if we want to achieve a more affordable, equitable, and sustainable healthcare system for everyone in the Commonwealth.”

The coalition is coming together as the Steward Health Care bankruptcy saga begins to unfold and as the Massachusetts House is ready to advance a sweeping health care reform bill.  The coalition’s priorities include strengthening Health Policy Commission cost containment tools, addressing health care cost drivers, and reducing costs that government shifts to the private sector.

Spending on behavioral health, primary care and health equity are also priorities, the coalition said, as well as promoting provider price transparency and encouraging insurance that rewards efficient providers and “value-based care options.”

McAnneny is a part-time senior fellow in economic opportunity at the Pioneer Institute For Public Policy Research.  She served as president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation for nine years and before that was president and CEO of the Massachusetts Society of CPAs, and held senior positions at Fidelity Investments and Associated Industries of Massachusetts.  In the 1990s, McAnneny worked in state government as a staff attorney at the former Joint Committee on Taxation.