Mass.Hospitals aim to stop vote on how they’re paid

The Boston Globe reports:

Hospital industry executives are negotiating a deal with a major union for health care workers to stave off a November ballot question that could cost some of the state’s most prominent medical institutions hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

At issue is a proposed ballot initiative by the Service Employees International Union, Local 1199, that would dramatically change the way health care is financed, taking money from hospitals that are paid higher rates and giving the money to lower-paid hospitals, and to consumers through their insurance companies.

Backers say the ballot initiative could eventually lower health care premiums for some consumers and shore up struggling community hospitals. It is largely aimed at Partners HealthCare, the state’s highest-paid health care provider, which would lose $440 million a year if voters were to approve the ballot question, according to the SEIU. The parent company of Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women’s and eight other hospitals, Partners warns that the initiative could force it to cut thousands of jobs.

The "un-free market" in health care.