Rough week for the Massachusetts Model

“Massive spending on non-benefit costs.”

That’s the subtitle of a Health Affairs post about what is now known as “The Massachusetts Model.”

The short synopsis: The cost of the paperwork will kill any cost savings:

Costs, costs, costs

Unrelenting costs increases and the economic meltdown are eroding the benefits of the Massachusetts health plan, according to a new study from the D.C.-based Urban Institute:

Lingering Swine Flu

Swine Flu continues to spread, but with few serious cases. Everyone seems less afraid. But at some schools, kids are staying home. A few schools with a lot of absent students closed this week, including Boston Latin.

My son brought home a letter from school Tuesday informing me that a handful of kids in the Cambridge system have the flu. (Cambridge — but not Boston — is in Middlesex County, home to half of the confirmed H1N1 cases in the state.) Might be Swine Flu; it might not, the letter said. Doctors have stopped testing in most cases. Still, per state order, anyone with flu symptoms was asked to stay home for seven days.

Reform: The other Massachusetts health plan

Legislation on the floor by the end of July: That’s what Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday after she and key House committee heads met with President Barack Obama.

“This is about costs” she said.

Obama’s word: “Unsustainable.”

But fixes to the way we pay for health care will move a lot of money around. There will be winners and losers. It will get ugly. Still, there is serious momentum.

Some of that could be seen during the last of three Senate Finance Committee meetings on the reform bill. The Tuesday video is still up on C-Span.

Swine Flu: It’s everywhere!

With 71 cases out of nearly 900 in the U.S., Massachusetts has been relatively hard-hit by the Swine Flu. But the H1N1 virus hasn’t killed anyone in the region so far — despite being carted around by Boston dental students and two Lowell Little Leaguers. The two U.S. deaths were in Texas.

The flu cases that did turn up here were not as severe as feared and didn’t spread as fast as expected. So some of the urgency is gone.

The state public health blog is the best place to get up-to-date local information.

Swine Flu news roundups

The Swine Flu story is changing so fast, what I tell you this morning will be dated by lunch.

I worry that the story is being overplayed.

But it’s like trying to judge coverage of a pending hurricane: It’s going to be bad, but no one really knows how bad until it blows through.

For up-to-date news, best to go to one of many good roundup sites: The Boston Globe, Mass. Dept. of Health or the New York Times.

Not a really a health story, but…

The Boston University Medical School was in the news last week when student Philip Markoff, 23, was charged with the so-called “Craig’slist murder.” The Boston Globe reported that among the evidence Boston police found in Markoff’s apartment was a handgun hidden in a hollowed-out copy of “Gray’s Anatomy.”

The Globe also reported that the case brings back some bad memories for students and staff at the BU Med School: