Today according to Matt Murphy of the State House News Service the Governor walked into the Press Room at the State house and got serious.
BOSTON - Gov. Deval L. Patrick dialed up his pressure on lawmakers Friday to act on health care cost legislation, requesting a commitment from House and Senate leadership to vote on a bill in January and saying he’s discussed scaling up cost control strategies nationally with Obama administration officials.
"The building is full of good intentions. We need action,” Patrick said during an interview, making a rare and impromptu visit to the press Friday morning before a meeting with his Cabinet.
Later a reaction from the House.....
“Chairman Walsh and the joint committee are in the midst of crafting a bill, which the Speaker expects to be released from the committee later in the legislative session,” the statement said. Walsh said he was not sure when a bill might be ready for full consideration in the House.“We’re not ready. It’s a complicated issue. It affects people’s health and our largest employer. It’s not something you do quickly. I think he would have as strong a reaction if we did something that had an adverse effect,” Walsh said. Describing a process that has involved five public hearings, visits to 35 hospitals and over 400 meetings with consumers and stakeholders, Walsh said there was “no chance” a bill would come out of his committee before Thanksgiving and the Legislature’s winter recess, and said it “remains to be seen” if the bill can be done in January.
and from the Senate
Committee co-chairman Sen. Richard Moore, D-Uxbridge, said earlier this month that it would be “difficult” to get a health care payment reform bill done this year.“I think it’d be difficult to get it done this calendar year. I’m hoping that we can get something out, at least on the table,” he said.
Asked whether the Senate might look to take a bill up before the House, Moore said, “We may still do that.” “I’m still hopeful the committee’s going to produce something. It’s a very complex bill and the governor’s bill doesn’t deal with it with all the complexities that are involved,” Moore said.
Oh Dear.
An increasingly cozy alliance between companies that manufacture processed foods and companies that serve the meals is making students — a captive market — fat and sick while pulling in hundreds of millions of dollars in profits...The money is ill spent. The Center for Science in the Public Interest has warned that sending food to be processed often means lower nutritional value and noted that “many schools continue to exceed the standards for fat, saturated fat and sodium.” A 2008 study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that by the time many healthier commodities reach students, “they have about the same nutritional value as junk foods.” [
