Dr. Eric Dickson, the CEO of UMass Memorial Health Care, says the health care inequities that have surfaced during the coronavirus pandemic can be addressed through policies that help hospitals like his that cater to some of the poorest people in the state.

On The Codcast with John McDonough of the T.H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard and Paul Hattis, formerly of Tufts University Medical School, Dickson outlined three key policies to improve health care equity – stop the expansion of Mass General Brigham into Westborough, Westwood, and Woburn; raise Medicaid payment rates; and make Medicare available to more people by steadily lowering the age of eligibility.

All three policies center around the way hospital care is paid for, with Medicaid, the government insurance program for the poor and elderly, paying lower rates than commercial health insurers. The disparity in payment rates means hospitals that cater to the poor rely more on Medicaid funding and can only survive if they are cross-subsidized by higher payments from commercial insurers.

As it is, UMass Memorial is just breaking even, Dickson said. “We can keep the lights on but having dollars to invest in new buildings and technologies, that comes really hard to us,” he said.