By Andy Metzger

State House News Service

CHELSEA -- Facing criticism from her chief rival in the gubernatorial election for missing annual hearings on health-care cost trends, Martha Coakley said health care and mental health are important issues, and ones her staff can handle.

Monday kicked off the first of two days of testimony before the state Health Policy Commission on health care costs, an issue where Coakley has played a role, seeking to forgo anti-trust litigation with Partners HealthCare System by letting the health giant grow larger in exchange for cost-controls going forward.

Coakley participated in the hearings last year, but does not plan to this year amid a campaign for governor where she is neck and neck with Republican Charlie Baker. A Democrat, Coakley is the attorney general and the state's designated consumer advocate.

"I have done them in the past, but the issues that I care very strongly about that are on today, that my folks have worked on -- they are representing and will put forward the proposals," Coakley told the News Service at a campaign stop in Chelsea on Monday morning when asked why she wasn't attending the hearing.

A Coakley spokesman on Friday said she could not attend the hearing due to a scheduling conflict, which he declined to specify. The Attorney General's Office was scheduled to make a presentation this morning.

In a statement Monday morning, Baker criticized Coakley for missing the discussion of health costs.

"The skyrocketing cost of health care is among the greatest problems facing middle-class families in Massachusetts," Baker said in a statement. "As attorney general, Martha Coakley has done little to offer comfort to those seeking affordable health care, has sat on the sidelines while the Health Connector website has left thousands in health-care limbo at a cost of millions to the taxpayers, and now is skipping an opportunity to advocate on behalf of those struggling to pay for quality health-care services."

The commission has estimated Partners' acquisition of South Shore Hospital and merger with Hallmark Health System would cause costs to rise $49 million per year. In an agreement that is currently before Superior Court Judge Janet Sanders, Coakley would green-light the mergers, while the agreement would cap Hallmark prices for six and a half years and require Partners to fund a compliance monitor. Partners and Coakley say the agreement will help control rising costs and significantly alter Partners' negotiating power for up to 10 years.

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Coakley defends health-care work