Everyone who has half a brain cell is aware that the health care / health insurance system in Massachusetts is completely corrupt. Well, now, we got our confirmation: A handshake that made healthcare history. [Boston Globe]

[Partners CEO] Thier’s lawyers cautioned that a written agreement between the state’s biggest hospital company and its biggest health insurer that would make insurance more expensive statewide might raise legal questions about anticompetitive behavior, according to officials directly involved in the talks.

And so, in May 2000, the two simply shook hands on this: [BCBS CEO] Van Faasen would give Partners doctors and hospitals the biggest insurance payment increase since Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women’s hospitals agreed to join forces in 1993.

In return, Thier would protect Blue Cross from Van Faasen’s biggest fear: that Partners would allow other insurers to pay less. Those who helped broker the deal say Thier promised he would push for the same or bigger payment increases for everything from X-rays to brain surgery from Van Faasen’s competition, ensuring that all major insurers would face tens of millions in cost increases.

And the state FORCES us to buy into this shit or they hit us with a tax penalty!

Some things just leave me speechless.