Free Republic

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick just exhorted legislators to overhaul the way the state pays for health care. He’s pushing for an end to the traditional arrangement of compensating doctors and hospitals for each service they provide. It’s not yet clear what will replace this “fee-for-service” payment system. But there’s growing support for a “global budget” model, under which primary care physicians would receive annual lump sums for each of their patients - regardless of how little or how much care they needed.

The dueling press releases from Mitt Romney's campaign and the DNC this afternoon shed light on a new issue in the campaign: contraception. At a campaign event in Colorado last night, Romney criticized the Obama administration's new contraception benefit rule, calling the decision "a violation of conscience." The DNC shot back today with a press release saying Romney's campaign "misleads" on the issue, pointing out that Massachusetts's health care law kept in place a similar contraception mandate. "Romney is being hypocritical criticizing the President on contraception when his health care law kept in place a similar state mandate," the release...