Swampscott gov hopeful frames agenda

LYNN – Charlie Baker of Swampscott has plenty of ideas about what he would do if elected governor of Massachusetts.The 53-year-old father of three and former corporate insurance executive shared his vision with Item editors Wednesday, including the need to consolidate state agencies, help the fishing industry, reform the delivery of health and human services and revise the process for creating a state budget.”There are 120 operating agencies in state government. I think there should be far fewer,” said the candidate, who has lived the past 17 years in Swampscott with his wife, Lauren, and children Charlie, 19, a college student; AJ, 16, enrolled at Swampscott High School; and Caroline, 12, also a Swampscott public school student.According to Baker, once the chief executive officer of Harvard Pilgrim Insurance and a former Swampscott selectman, public concern over the potential increased cost of health care played a role in Tuesday’s U.S. Senate special-election victory of Scott Brown over state Attorney General Martha Coakley.”Scott was talking about what was on people’s minds – jobs, spending, the deficit, taxes. He addressed what people are worried about,” he said. “That message resonated with a lot of people.”Baker, who grew up in Needham and later lived in Rockport before moving to Swampscott, said he views the political landscape through a Massachusetts lens. Asked about his choice of state Sen. Richard Tisei as a running mate, Baker said the longtime Republican public servant, elected 13 times in a predominately Democratic district, knows how to get things done at the State House.On gambling and casinos, Baker said he would support construction of a single casino in Massachusetts, but no more, since these destinations would take away business from restaurants and small retailers.On the economy, Baker said keeping those businesses and jobs that are already here in Massachusetts must be a priority. He cited commercial fishing and small companies with less than 250 employees that make specialty products.Although health care accounts for about a third of the jobs in the Massachusetts economy, and ventures related to bio-science are flourishing, Baker said the $1 billion in state funds aimed at strengthening the latter sector might be too generous.Baker also questioned whether changes in the state’s health care system reflect their original intent. For instance, the $400 million in federal funds annually received by Massachusetts helps pay for healthcare for those who can’t afford it. When the federal government threatened to take away the funds, the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and former Gov. Mitt Romney were able to preserve it. As a result, the $400 million payment continues and today serves more state residents than it did previously, but the cost of health care has not come down, Baker said.To make that happen, the government must “get serious” about disclosing the prices of medical services, just as it did with the price of prescription drugs, he said, noting that the introduction of generic drugs as an option has helped drive down the cost of drugs.The same should be done with other medical services, he said.Baker noted that the same MRI scan at five different medical facilities across the state ranged in price by 500 percent. “Everybody should have to post their prices, just like a supermarket or a dry cleaners,” he said.Governing the state is complicated by its disparate geographical regions, each with its own demographic and economic issues. Income levels, housing prices, and education levels vary markedly from one region to the next, so that the North Shore, South Shore, Cape and Islands, Berkshires and Central Massachusetts often share few priorities.To expand on this situation, Baker noted that while the state’s average unemployment rate stands at 10 percent, some places have only six percent while others are burdened by 15 percent.Considered pro-choice and a social moderate, Baker said championing legislation to