Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester) released the following statement today after it was announced that the federal government has given Massachusetts a one-year waiver extension on an Affordable Care Act mandate that will change the way insurers calculate premiums for businesses:
"This waiver extension is indeed good news for small businesses in our state and the people who depend on them. Healthcare costs are a major challenge to increasing employment in the wake of a long and difficult recession.
That's why we need to use the time gained from the waiver to redouble our efforts to secure permanent relief from a risk rating system that will disrupt what has worked for our state to accurately price risk and to help prevent the rate spikes that the federal mandate could well cause.
If people in Washington truly believe that Massachusetts has been a pioneer in health care reform, then they should give our system the respect it deserves and prevent it from being disrupted by a mandate that doesn't make sense for our state."
