The Health Policy Commission (HPC) announced last week that this Wednesday, Oct. 3, it will release its analysis of the healthcare costs associated with ballot Question 1. Monitoring healthcare spending in the state is the fundamental mission of the HPC. It is why the HPC performed a thorough analysis of the large Beth Israel Lahey proposed merger (see story below). Yet, even though the HPC is performing its oversight role, and before the cost report was even distributed, the nursing union behind Question 1 criticized the HPC’s as-yet-unreleased report as being unfair. A spokesman for the Coalition to Protect Patient Safety, which opposes Question 1, called the union’s pre-release attempt to criticize the report’s as-yet-unknown contents “desperate.” The secretary of state’s “red book” voter guide released this week estimates that the cost of Question 1 to the nine state-owned hospitals alone will be between $67.8 million and $74.8 million annually.