With the unveiling of Governor Charlie Baker’s FY2018 budget, the commencement of the 2017-2018 legislative session on Beacon Hill, and a new presidential administration underway in Washington D.C., the Massachusetts health care industry is facing the prospect of significant policy changes in the coming year. Policymakers in the Commonwealth are set to debate major reforms aimed at controlling health care costs that will affect a wide range of industry stakeholders, including employers, providers, payers, and pharmaceutical companies, among others.

In order to discourage avoidable enrollment in MassHealth and slow rising costs in the state’s Medicaid program, which now accounts for nearly 40 percent of state spending, Baker has proposed in his budget a $2,000 per employee “fair share” assessment on Massachusetts employers with 11 or more full-time equivalent employees (FTE), or employees that work 35 hours per week, whose health coverage does not meet certain requirements. The Baker Administration has argued that some of the increase in MassHealth spending is driven by employed individuals enrolling in MassHealth rather than employer-sponsored insurance, and Baker’s proposal aims to reverse this trend.