PBLN Policy Statements

The following four policy statements reflect the position of PBLN on these issues. The positions were developed by PBLN Working Groups and adopted by the PBLN Board of Directors.

As is PBLN’s emerging custom, we encourage individual business leaders to “opt-in” by signing on to our policy statements, which PBLN may use publicly to advance awareness of our position.

If you would like to opt-in and sign on to any or all of these three policy statements, you may do so by emailing PBLN Director of Operations Aaron Chalek at aaron@pbln.org.

PBLN Healthcare/Life Sciences Policy Statement
Values Statement
As progressive business leaders, we believe Massachusetts should continue to lead the nation as an innovator in health, health care and life sciences. To that end:

1. We stand by the Massachusetts model for health reform achieving near universal coverage; and we are committed to universal health care as a right, not a privilege for all Americans;
2. We support policies for cost containment in order to make universal coverage a sustainable and affordable reality;
3. We support polices that promote innovation in health care and life sciences;
4. We support policies that enhance the health of all our citizens including strategies to promote health care quality and disease prevention;
5. We support policies that address disparities in access to/quality of healthcare for the disadvantaged, racial/ethnic minorities and those with economic barriers to access.

Policy Statement – Healthcare Cost Containment via Payment Reform
The current policy position that the Healthcare/Life Sciences working group proposes PBLN support is achieving cost containment through payment reform. Specifically, the issue is whether we support the recommendation made in July by the Governor’s Special Payment Commission to shift Massachusetts toward an all-payer global payment model over the next five years. The working group supports the broad goals of payment reform and the specific strategy of global payment, but also recognizes that many of the details have yet to be determined and the implications for consumers, providers, businesses and to innovation in health care and life sciences. We agreed to examine the topic of global payment in more detail at the October 23rd PBLN conference. Attached is a backgrounder on the Commission’s recommendation. With that context, the policy statement for the Board’s consideration is the following:

PBLN supports universal healthcare for all Americans as a right and not a privilege. In fully supporting Massachusetts’ innovative approach to achieving near-universal coverage, we view the next frontier for Massachusetts and the nation to be cost containment so that universal health care is affordable and sustainable. We support the findings of the Governor’s Special Payment Commission to shift Massachusetts toward an all-payer global payment model over the next five years. We are committed to deep engagement over the impact of this shift on all stakeholders including consumers, businesses, physicians and hospitals, disadvantaged populations, and to innovation in the health care and life sciences sectors.

PBLN Energy/Environment & Housing/Economic Development Policy Statement
Values Statement
Progressive business leaders understand that our planet, our society and the economy are inexorably intertwined. The nexus between energy and the environment exemplifies this interdependence. Energy makes our society and economy possible, but the way we currently take, make, use and waste energy is damaging our environment. Simply put, our biosphere is breaking down. We are collectively overwhelming the earth’s natural cyclic processes and capabilities to recycle; regenerate and replenish itself. To restore equilibrium, our society and economy must become sustainable. Accordingly, progressive business leaders are committed to supporting strategies and policies both within our companies and our society that move us toward a more sustainable future, where we strive to harmonize our activity with our environment in our communities, in our country and throughout the world.

Policy Statement: Confronting Carbon Pollution and Energy Price Inflation
Recognizing the potentially catastrophic threat that global warming and climate change present to our environment, our society and the economy, we, the Progressive Business Leaders Network, support the following policy positions:

1. We support putting a put a price on carbon emissions, and allowing market forces to raise the price of carbon emitting forms of energy, thus stimulating the necessary shifts in our society and economy;
2. We support policies that anticipate and correct imperfections in that market-based strategy in order to protect workers and small businesses and to facilitate innovation in alternative energy industries;
3. We support the Waxman-Markey bill -- American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES Act), H.R. 2454 passed by the US House of Representatives in June 2009 as a baseline for energy legislation and encourage passage of legislation consistent with that bill and the provisions set out below;
4. We support the adoption of comprehensive climate legislation that includes:
   1. A cap and trade system for pricing and reducing carbon emissions that reduces USA carbon emissions to meet internationally agreed average per capita emissions for OECD (www.oecd.org) countries by 2050;
   2. Auction of substantial majority of emissions allowances, with auction proceeds directed to ameliorate the negative impacts of pricing carbon pollution, provide funding for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects and transition assistance for adversely affected worker; remaining allowances distributed at discretion of executive branch agencies;
   3. Incentives to stimulate energy innovation and renewable energy, including a national Renewable Portfolio Standard;
5. We support aggressive action by the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate Carbon as a pollutant;
6. We believe that as the leading emitter of Carbon into the Atmosphere, the United States has a moral obligation to take the lead in developing global emissions standards;
7. We support the steps taken by Governor Deval Patrick and the Massachusetts legislature to put Massachusetts at the forefront of state and regional efforts to address global climate change, to support renewable energy, to create “green” jobs and communities, and to build a "cleantech" cluster in Massachusetts to foster innovation and transition to a more sustainable economy.

PBLN Education Policy Statement
Values Statement
There is nothing more important for securing our future than the education of our children. The achievement gap along racial and economic lines in the United States is a reflection of grave social injustice and must be addressed as a top educational priority. The risk of education in the United States falling behind the educational standards of other leading nations presents both a moral and strategic imperative. We believe that the business community has an important role to play in addressing complex social sector issues like education; and we are committed to empowering innovative thinkers and education entrepreneurs to create new possibilities for children. It is in this spirit that PBLN supports passage of education reforms that bring access to innovation and excellence for all students from cradle to college. At the same time we view these innovations in education as essential contributions to the invention of a sustainable, competitive economy defined by shared and lasting opportunity and prosperity.

Policy Statement

1. We support all public schools, including charter schools;
2. We support policies that seek to ensure that all public schools, including charter schools, reach out to and include in innovative programs the various populations of students that have historically been under-represented in such programs;
3. We support bringing innovative models to the children and teachers most in need of our attention because of the challenges facing the most underperforming schools;
4. We support the development of innovative models within local school districts, whether they are put together by teachers, by local district administrators, by the state or by a combination of all of these valued members of the education community;
5. Specifically, we support the package of K-12 education innovations and reforms filed by Governor Deval Patrick in Massachusetts, captured in the two pieces of legislation entitled, An Act Establishing Readiness Schools and An Act Relative to Charter Schools;
6. We urge policy makers and business leaders to support additional innovation ideas including extended learning time for children at all levels and a comprehensive effort on excellence in education from cradle to college.

PBLN Housing/Economic Development Policy Statement
Policy Statement
PBLN supports market driven models that lead to the development of affordable
housing. We believe such models, including the Massachusetts Chapter 40B
Affordable Housing law advance the public interest, are vital to our economy and
reflect our values as a society. PBLN opposes the current effort to repeal the
Massachusetts Affordable Housing law by ballot initiative petition.

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Special thanks to a group of volunteers who play a critical role in policy development at PBLN and in helping to bring people together in substantive, relevant dialogue.

Education Working Group
Gloria Cordes Larson, President of Bentley University - Chair
Christine Williams, Special Advisor to the President & Deputy General Counsel at Bentley University - Coordinator

Energy/Environment Working Group
Mitch Tyson, Chairman of Advanced Electron Beams and Roger Freeman, Managing Principal of Solventerra - co-Chairs

Healthcare/Life Sciences Working Group
Joshua Boger, Founder & former CEO, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. & James Roosevelt, Jr., President & CEO, Tufts Health Plan - co-Chairs
Brian Carey, Partner, Foley Hoag, LLP., & Valerie Fleishman, Executive Director, New England Healthcare Institute - co-Coordinators

Housing/Economic Development Working Group
Thomas N. O’Brien, Managing Director, The HYM Investment Group - Chair
Sean Sacks, Assistant Vice President, New Boston Fund - Coordinator

Member Spotlight

Diane Hessan, President & CEO - Communispace
According to Advertising Age Communispace is one of the fastest growing marketing and technology companies in the country, with a Blue Chip client list that would make a Madison Avenue giant jealous. A pioneer in creating online communities to help marketers deeply engage customers, Diane helped found Communispace in 1999 and hasn't looked back.