BOSTON --Attorney General Tom Reilly, a Democratic candidate for governor, had planned to set up a unveil health care plan he said it would reduce costs by relying on improvements in the technology and then also helping patients with chronic conditions avoid costly emergency room care.
The plan is also calls for the creation of electronic health records so that each of a patient's doctors could review the patient's medical history personally.
"I am going to set this state on a path that will rein in costs for families and businesses, and make the quality of our health care system a model for the entire nation," Reilly said in a statement.
Reilly was to formally unveil the proposal during a visit to the Whittier Street Health Center in Boston on Thursday morning.
The law would require everyone in Massachusetts be insured by July 2007, providing subsidies and also sliding-scale premiums to then get poor and low-income residents into health plans. Those deemed May able to afford insurance but who still refuse would face increasing tax penalties. The bill also includes a $295 per-worker fee for companies with more than 11 workers who don't provide insurance.
Reilly said he would make sure the law works in part by focusing more on prevention of health problems, from asthma and diabetes to obesity and substance abuse.