Overview

Our current health care system is crumbling. Costs are high and continue to soar, as insurance companies, the drug and medical device industry as well as hospitals all siphon off needed capital in the form of profits and high salaries. 

Prescription drug costs are rising faster than all other health care expenses despite being the most profitable industry in the world, yet we continue to subsidize it twice—once by taxpayers, and once by American consumers, who pay far higher prices than do their counterparts in the rest of the world.

Quality, measured in basic health barometers compared to 29 developed nations is mediocre at best with the US ranked 23rd in infant mortality, and life expectancy rates for both men and women are now significantly shorter in the US than those in other nations.

Finally, state and federal laws shelter health insurance companies from any meaningful public accountability. For example, it's easier to get justice over a defective car than it is over a life-threatening denial of care by an HMO.

The lack of corporate accountability, high standards, and basic economic fairness has led to more problems than we should tolerate. Too often, it is powerful special interests that are keeping us from fulfilling our expectations of health and safety. MASSPIRG works to counter their influence and protect the health of all Massachusetts residents.