The acclaim: That after years of failed efforts, Rhode Island would finally have an integrated, academic-based health system supporting world-class care and research.
The concern: That such a system could result in layoffs and also prove costly to consumers and insurers, as has happened elsewhere in the United States with mergers.
Sen. Joshua Miller, chairman of the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services, falls in the latter camp.
In an email, Miller cited the experience of Massachusetts-based Partners HealthCare, which merged two major hospital systems, Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women’s. The combined system is now called Mass General Brigham.