WEDNESDAY IS THE Massachusetts Health Policy Commission’s annual Health Care Cost Trends Hearings, when we hear remarks from state leaders and questions posed by members of the commission to panelists who represent various constituencies in the Massachusetts health care ecosystem.
Massachusetts health care over the years has tended to resemble the “Perils of Pauline” — with one train or another barreling down the tracks toward us. Somehow, however, the system has always survived more or less intact.
This year, things seem quite different, and the hearings come as the well-being of the health care system is under a greater series of threats than any time in recent history. A confluence of challenges points to very hard times for the Massachusetts health care system…