What’s it like to be in charge of nearly half the state budget?
Extraordinarily humbling,” said Marylou Sudders. But don’t confuse humbling with cautious indecision or lack of tenacity.
Gov. Charlie Baker’s health and human services secretary has a reputation for strong leadership and a social worker’s commitment to the enormous range of state programs she oversees, led by the Medicaid program that delivers health care coverage to 1.8 million state residents. Sudders said she is on board for a second Baker term, and highlighted some of the priorities she’ll focus on, including another stab at reining in Medicaid drug costs, an initiative to preserve access to community hospitals, and continued work to ensure access to mental health services.
Sudders said the state has built up a lot of protections against any rollback of the Affordable Care Act, but called herself a “worrier” who nonetheless closely tracks developments outside the state -- prescient words on Friday afternoon, only hours before a federal judge in Texas struck down the entire federal law.
Sudders touched on those topics and more in the inaugural episode of “Health and Consequences,” a new health policy-focused entry to the Codcast line-up being helmed by John McDonough, a one-time Massachusetts legislator who now teaches at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health, and Paul Hattis of Tufts University’s School of Medicine.“
