Mike Minogue Unveils Patients First Healthcare Plan:
Bringing Access to Affordable, Quality Care to Massachusetts
HAMILTON, Mass. — MassGOP and RNC-endorsed candidate for governor, Mike Minogue, today unveiled a healthcare blueprint designed to put Patients First across Massachusetts. Massachusetts has the highest healthcare costs in the country, and healthcare spending now consumes more than half of the Commonwealth’s budget.
Mike’s 30-year career in medical technologies working with physicians, nurses, hospitals, administrators, FDA and CMS agencies combined with 19 years of purchasing healthcare for his employees from insurers, equip him to be a uniquely qualified candidate for governor to save our healthcare system. The success of Abiomed was based on their commitment and culture of putting Patients First. Drawing on his extensive experience and expertise, Mike Minogue’s plan is centered on patients and provides access to affordable quality care.
Massachusetts has a history of providing patients with exceptional healthcare from the top hospitals in America. However, the healthcare system has now become less accessible and unaffordable.
As Mike travels the Commonwealth, he hears over and over again how people in Massachusetts are struggling with:
- Difficult to schedule appointments with physicians or mental health services and longest emergency room wait times on record
- Lack of equity of treatment outside of Boston for high risk treatment (maternity, stroke, cardiac care) and lack of hospital beds for transfer into Boston
- Most expensive commercial healthcare plans in the US1 and high cost of prescription drugs due to PBMs (pharmacy benefits managers) refusing to allow generic drug plans
- High cost of living pushing nurses and physicians to other states
Mike Minogue’s Patients First plan includes the following:
Accessible Care:
Getting a timely doctor’s appointment is essential for quality care. Mike Minogue’s Patients First plan would grow and incentivize community-based care by expanding primary and specialty services and outpatient surgery centers. These centers would implement dedicated same-day appointments with primary care physicians for urgent needs that do not require a hospital visit. Minogue would create low-regulation “healthcare enterprise zones” in rural and underserved communities and eliminate Certificate of Need (CON) laws that currently cap how much equipment and how many facilities providers can add. Removing that cap would let the market fill gaps in care that large hospital systems have left unaddressed or been restricted from collaboration with physicians. Minogue would also establish 24/7 navigation resources including Medicaid hotlines and AI-powered triage tools paired to help patients get the right treatment faster while easing pressure on emergency rooms.
Minogue’s plan would expand crisis stabilization centers and strengthen enforcement of mental health parity laws, so insurers cover mental health treatment the same way they cover physical health treatment. To improve access to mental health providers, it would integrate behavioral health directly into primary care practices (not emergency rooms), funding co-located providers so patients can be referred and seen without waiting for a separate appointment in a separate system. Veterans and correctional officers in Massachusetts face suicide rates well above the general population, and the plan would direct targeted mental health resources and crisis support toward these high-risk groups. To build the pipeline for the future, it would also expand and make better use of residency programs and reassess programs like the Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Program (MCPAP) to restore access to mental health support for children and families.
Affordable Care:
As a CEO who purchased health insurance for his employees for nearly two decades in Massachusetts, Mike Minogue has experienced firsthand the burden of health insurance premiums climbing by double digits every year and broad state mandates increasing system costs. Families deserve to know what care costs before they need it. Minogue would create a state “Price Compare MA” app so patients can compare pricing before receiving care. Minogue would create bulk drug purchasing programs, increase oversight of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), and cap certain out-of-pocket drug costs. The plan would also increase transparency in insurance coverage, approvals, and reimbursement, including allowing physicians prior authorization for post-surgery care to reduce hospital delays and improve patient flow.
The Patients First plan will improve reimbursement for primary care, preventive services, mental healthcare, and complementary care, aligning payment incentives with patient outcomes. The plan will also address the disparities in payment rates between insurance providers and establish mechanisms to identify and address fraud and inefficiency throughout the system.
Additionally, the Patients First plan will give people more control over their own care through “Health Freedom Accounts,” letting residents pair catastrophic health insurance with Health Savings Accounts enhanced by a state tax reduction. This would give people a greater stake in their healthcare decisions while encouraging cost-conscious spending and reducing unnecessary healthcare utilization.
Lastly, entrepreneurs and small businesses will be allowed to bundle healthcare services to leverage and negotiate lower cost plans.
Quality Care:
Quality care depends on a supported workforce of physicians, nurses, and healthcare professionals. The Patients First plan will expand nursing school capacity, streamline licensing for out-of-state providers, and support affordable housing initiatives for healthcare workers. Nursing shortages and a reliance on travel staff not only increases costs but also instability of patient care. The plan will also expand loan forgiveness for physicians, nurses, and mental health providers who commit to practicing in a Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) for three years. The plan would also expand telehealth by restoring patients’ ability to see their own doctor by phone or video when traveling or attending college out of state and expanding coverage to include audio-only visits for patients without reliable access to video technology.
High burnout across physicians, nurses, and specialists stems, in part, from excessive EMR/documentation requirements, regulatory pressures, and misaligned incentives. Minogue’s Patients First plan will invest in tools like ambient documentation to cut down the paperwork that keeps physicians and nurses from patients and streamline reporting requirements that add hours to every shift.
Massachusetts would also look to higher-performing models to identify best practices and eliminate hundreds of millions to billions of dollars in waste, fraud, and inefficiencies. Overall, Minogue’s Patients First plan will improve quality of life, cost of living and retention for the physicians and nurses the system depends on.
“At the heart of a great healthcare system is a commitment to put the Patients First and protect the patient-doctor relationship. Patients deserve access to affordable, quality care,” Minogue said. “I recognize the dedication of our doctors, nurses, and healthcare professionals and the need to support them to prevent burnout. We need to alleviate the strain on our emergency rooms (ER), so they can go back to being places for emergency care,” Minogue added. “Over the coming months, I’ll continue visiting hospitals, clinics, and community health centers across the Commonwealth to hear directly from patients and providers about how we can lower costs and improve access to quality care.”
About Mike Minogue:
Mike Minogue was drawn to the medical device industry for its purpose to improve and save the lives of people all over the world, starting his career at General Electric (GE) HealthCare. After GE, Mike served for nearly 19 years as Chairman, President, and CEO of Abiomed, Inc., a Massachusetts-based medical device company headquartered in Danvers, MA. Under Mike’s leadership, the company created the field of heart recovery through the development of Impella®, the world’s smallest heart pump and became a cornerstone of the Massachusetts life sciences ecosystem by driving local job creation and expanding manufacturing and research operations in the state. With Mike at its helm, Abiomed, Inc. treated more than 250,000 patients. Today, Abiomed continues to employ more than 2,000 people in Massachusetts.
Since 2017, Mike has served on the Board of Insulet, the world leader in insulin pumps, headquartered and manufactured in Acton, MA. Mike also served as a member of the board of the medical device industry association, AdvaMed, from 2007 to 2023, and as Chairman from 2021 to 2023. In these positions, Mike played a key role in shaping national policy for the medical device industry, including successfully advocating for the permanent repeal of the 2.3% medical device excise tax. This major legislative victory unlocked an estimated $25 billion over the following decade, making more resources available for investments in research, job creation, and innovation. In 2023, MassMEDIC recognized Mike with the Impact Award for his significant contributions to patient care, innovations in medical technology, improvements in care methods, and efforts to strengthen the life sciences ecosystem.
1According to the NSSRT, healthcare costs have increased over 250% since 2007.