AIM Backs Governor’s Efforts to Preserve Health Coverage

BOSTON — The 4,000 member employers of Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) support Gov. Charlie Baker’s efforts to ensure that changes to federal healthcare reform permit Massachusetts to continue to provide healthcare to its citizens.

The governor wrote a letter to U.S. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy asserting that the success Massachusetts has forged in providing healthcare coverage to 97{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} of its citizens came about through cooperation among the business community, doctors, hospitals, insurers, and consumers. AIM leadership agrees.

AIM played a significant role in the 2006 Massachusetts healthcare-reform law because having large numbers of uninsured people raises healthcare premiums for employers. AIM served on the initial board of directors for the Commonwealth Health Care Connector Authority and conducted extensive educational programs throughout the state to help employers comply.

The 2006 reform also set the stage of the Commonwealth’s groundbreaking 2012 healthcare cost-control law, which limits the growth of healthcare spending to the overall rate of economic growth.

As Congress moves to change the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA), AIM echoes Baker’s call that any changes preserve market stability, ensure state-level flexibility, allow sufficient time for transition to any new program, maintain state-level safety nets that provide coverage, and avoid cost shifting to states.