Mass. Sen. Tarr Comments On Federal Health Care Plan

President Obama’s health care law could create issues for Massachusetts going forward, according to Massachusetts Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr.

Speaking to NPR in Tampa Wednesday on the floor of the Republican National Convention, Tarr said he still supports the health care plan Mitt Romney signed into law when he was governor, but that Obama’s health care law could create problems in the future with a Medicaid waiver for hospitals due to expire in two years.

“ … in 2014 a number of those hospitals are fearful that they're going to lose millions of dollars and their very survival is going to be threatened,” Tarr said.

Tarr says the elements that make the Massachusetts plan successful, like the flexibility to use Medicaid money more efficiently, would be thwarted by federal law if the state were trying to do it today.

"What's coming out of the federal government out of the plan … that President Obama has passed is actually a requirement that state's won't be able to … get Medicaid money at all if they don't follow the dictates of the federal government.”

Here's the full audio from NPR: