BUT THERE WILL BE NO “DEATH PANELS:” State plan may place limits on patients’ hospital options. “The state’s ambitious plan to shake up how providers are paid could have a hidden price for patients: Controlling Massachusetts’ soaring medical costs, many health care leaders believe, may require residents to give up their nearly unlimited freedom to go to any hospital and specialist they want. . . . This new system of ‘global payments’ would discourage overuse of expensive medical services, force providers to live within a budget, and improve coordination of care for patients, supporters argue.”

Think of them as “life” panels, because they’ll decide if you get to live!