Video from Last Thursday’s Forum on Steward & the Health Care Crisis

hank you so much to everyone who joined us last Thursday for our forum “The Steward Crisis and the Future of Health Care in Massachusetts.” Thank you to our wonderful moderator Enid Eckstein, engaging speakers, and event partner Mass-Care.

If you missed the event (or wanted to watch again!), you can find the video here: https://youtu.be/t8rbARiy__A.

During the forum, Bill Walczak mentioned his recent writings on the Steward situation. You can find two of those articles here:

https://www.dotnews.com/2024/steward-case-poses-just-beginning-our-community-s-health-care-woes

https://www.dotnews.com/2024/disowned-our-state-dot-region-s-residents-healthcare-experts-should

Stay tuned for future actions to take and future forums to continue this important discussion.

What the State Legislature Must Finish by Tomorrow’s Deadline

Although Massachusetts has a full-time legislature, the formal Legislative Session will end tomorrow.

After tomorrow (well, after the wee hours of Thursday morning), the State House will not likely be taking any more recorded votes for the rest of 2024.

As we noted last week, many important priorities are still in play. If you haven’t contacted your legislators yet, now is the best time.

Here’s what you can do:

  • Email Governor Healey in opposition to emergency shelter limits (new action alert)
  • Email your state senator about maternal health justice (new action alert)
  • Email your state rep in support of juvenile justice reform
  • Email the Housing Bill conference committee
  • Email the Climate Bill conference committee
  • Email the Ways & Means chairs about the Prison Moratorium

And whichever action or actions you take, make sure to share it with your networks too to keep the momentum going. In solidarity,
Jonathan Cohn
Policy Director
Progressive Massachusetts

Email Governor Healey in Opposition to Shelter Limits

Last week, the Healey administration announced that it would limit stays in overflow shelters to five days beginning August 1st (this Thursday).

We can’t turn our back on our state’s right to shelter law (a law in which we should take pride), and we can’t turn our back on families seeking help. It’s simple: an affluent state like Massachusetts should not be kicking out families and young children to live on the streets.

Take a moment today to email Governor Healey to oppose this new policy and demand that our state do more for families seeking shelter.

Email Your State Senator about Maternal Health

Everyone in Massachusetts should be able to choose where they give birth and the type of maternity care that is most appropriate for their needs. Unfortunately, our state currently lags the nation when it comes to access to midwives, birth centers, home birth, and integration of care — models that can reverse our rising maternal mortality and growing racial inequities in birth outcomes.

The Senate will be taking up legislation today on maternal health justice. Join the Bay State Birth Coalition in advocating for a strong bill.


TAKE ACTION: The MA Senate must pass critical maternal health legislation

The clock is ticking. The current formal legislative session at the State House ends in less than two weeks. And there is a lot still pending.

Today, we’re asking you to take action in support of two bills of critical importance to women’s health:

  • A maternal health bill that passed the House and is awaiting action in the Senate
  • The prison moratorium bill which passed last session but is still in committee with the clock ticking

The MA Senate Must Act on Maternal Health

Massachusetts families deserve a better maternal health care system. We have waited long enough for greater access to midwifery care, out-of-hospital birth options including birth centers and home births, pregnancy loss leave, public health data collection, coverage for donor milk, and so many more important provisions in this bill. The Massachusetts House passed a comprehensive Maternal Health Bill unanimously on June 20. The Senate needs to take action now — and by July 31.

Can you email your state senator in support of long-overdue legislation to expand access to midwifery care and out-of-hospital birth options?

Tell the Ways & Means Committee: Pass the Prison Moratorium

Let’s be blunt: prisons and jails are among the least healthy places. Despite rhetoric around rehabilitation, they are routinely places of retribution where people are denied necessary care.

Two years ago, the MA Legislature passed a moratorium on new prison and jail construction, but it was blocked by Governor Charlie Baker’s veto.

The organizing hasn’t stopped. Earlier this session, we saw moving testimony from women in MCI-Framingham who were able to participate virtually in hearings and speak directly to committees in the Legislature about why MA doesn’t need a new women’s prison — but instead needs greater investment in supportive services.

The prison moratorium bill is currently sitting in the Ways & Means Committee, awaiting action. Use this guide from Families for Justice as Healing to call the committee and urge them to pass the prison moratorium.

This International Women’s Day and Always: better health, not more prisons

Happy International Women’s Day!

Today should serve as a reminder of the fundamentally intersectional nature of the push for women’s rights. Women need pay equity, universal health care (including and especially reproductive health care), affordable child care, affordable housing, and so much more.

This International Women’s Day, take action on two important issues: saying no to another women’s prison and saying yes to creating a better maternal health care system. 
 


No New Women’s Prison

Massachusetts is planning to spend $50 million to build a new women’s prison to replace MCI-Framingham. As of January 1, 2022, the population in MCI-Framingham stood at 179, with more than 20% held in pre-trial detention. Why would we expand a system that costs $235,000 per person and only causes further harm?

That is the question that women from MCI-Framingham asked in a historic hearing last summer when they were able to testify to state legislators about the myriad better uses of that $50 million, especially in terms of investing in communities and support services at MCI-Framingham, expanding programming, and improving access to health care.

Studies have repeatedly shown that society cannot incarcerate its way to safety, and the family separation of incarceration and the well-documented inhumane conditions in Massachusetts’s prisons and jails fuel the community instability that is detrimental to public safety. Instead, investments in housing, health care, economic opportunity, and other social supports have been shown to be the true foundation of public safety for all.

Can you write to your state legislators in support of a moratorium on new prison and jail construction?

The Prison Moratorium bill (S.1979) would create a 5-year pause on major jail and prison construction and expansion, without preventing essential repairs, to allow for a focus on reducing the number of people in prison, implementing alternatives, and investing in communities.

The Legislature, in fact, has already gone on record in support of this bill by passing it at the end of the session, but Republican Governor Charlie Baker vetoed it. Let’s finish the work this year.

Find out if your legislators are already co-sponsors here.

  Demand a Better Maternal Health Care System

Massachusetts is facing a maternal health care crisis, which is devastating all of our communities, and hitting Black, Indigenous and people of color especially hard. This crisis has been compounded by a cascade of maternity care closures across the state. Policies are urgently needed to reverse this alarming trend.

A study published by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health last year revealed that rates of severe maternal health complications nearly doubled between 2011 and 2020. The situation is especially dire for black women, who are twice as likely than white women to die from maternal health complications in Massachusetts.

We need to demand that all women and birthing parents have access to the care that they need.

Can you write your state legislators along with the Chairs of the Committees on Public Health and Health Care Financing in support of access to midwives and birthing options?

An Act promoting access to midwifery care and out-of-hospital birth options (H.2209/S.145) would improve maternal health outcomes and promote racial and economic justice by expanding access to midwifery care and birthing choices, eliminating maternal care deserts and increasing access for low-income families.

Mass Can Lead the Way on Medicare for All

Medicare for All

Tuesday, November 14, 2023

Chair Friedman, Chair Lawn, and members of the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing:

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the policy director at Progressive Massachusetts. We are a statewide, multi-issue, grassroots membership organization focused on fighting for policy that would make our Commonwealth more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic. 

We urge you to give a favorable report to S.744/H.1239: An Act establishing Medicare for All in Massachusetts.

Massachusetts has a storied role in the history of the fight for universal health care in the US. Our former senator Ted Kennedy was a longtime champion of single payer, and our 2006 health care reform law was a model for the Affordable Care Act nationally.

Although our health care reform law, boosted by the ACA, has helped Massachusetts achieve near-full universality in health insurance coverage, we still see underinsurance, high premiums, high rates of medical debt, and significant disparities—all inevitable outcomes of a reliance on private sector provision. Universal coverage alone doesn’t guarantee affordability, quality, or equity without additional steps.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made the flaws of our current system clear. As we recognize the central public health message that our health is intertwined, we must build that recognition into health care delivery and ensure everyone can access the best-quality care possible. When anyone is too afraid of medical bills or debt to seek the care they need, we are all worse off.

The US remains the only advanced industrial country that has not recognized this as a fundamental right, but Massachusetts can lead the way. A single payer system would save the Commonwealth money through increased efficiency; take the burden of rising health care costs off small businesses, municipalities, and families; eliminate medical debt and medical bankruptcy; and finally guarantee access to quality, affordable health care as a right for all residents of the Commonwealth.

We often hear rhetoric around “choice” in our health care system. And indeed, there are plenty of places where “choice” is important, where it provides a valuable outlet for self-expression. Health insurance is not that. “Choice” in health insurance only means “you get as much as you can afford, and no more.”

The way we design our health care system has a significant impact on the lives of all residents of the Commonwealth, and putting equity and justice at the center of such a design is vital to ensuring that every person is able to live up to their full potential.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

Keep the Momentum Going for Medicare for All!

Health care is a human right, and our our policies need to reflect that.

That’s why we’ve been consistent supporters of Medicare for All, and the state’s Medicare for All bill is getting a hearing in the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing next Tuesday, November 14th at 10AM at the State House. The deadline to register to testify is this Thursday, November 9th.

Sign up to give testimony at the hearing

If you are able to go on Tuesday, then show up early to join Mass-Care for a rally outside on the State House steps before.
Rally and Testify for Medicare for All / Tuesday, November 14 — Rally 9 am, State House steps, Testify 10 am — Room A-1.

Whether or not you are able to submit testimony, it’s important for your legislators to hear from YOU.

Can you commit to writing to your state rep and state senator about Medicare for All?

And before you do…..Find out if your State Rep/Senator is a already a cosponsor.

Links from Our Friends at Mass-Care

  • Let Mass-Care know you’re coming
  • Spread the word about the 9AM rally on Facebook.
  • Check out Mass-Care’s Guide to the Bill Hearing

Ensuring Birthing Justice in the Commonwealth

Tuesday, June 6, 2023

Chair Cyr, Chair Decker, and members of the Joint Committee on Public Health:

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I’m the policy director of Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide, member-based grassroots advocacy organization fighting for a more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic Commonwealth. 

We urge you to give a favorable report to S.1415, An Act relative to birthing justice in the Commonwealth, and H.2209/S.1457, An Act promoting access to midwifery care and out-of-hospital birth options.

Since the Dobbs decision last year, nearly 20 states have moved to ban or severely restrict access to abortion, with wide-reaching negative impacts on access to reproductive health care, especially for marginalized communities. Although Massachusetts has taken important strides in recent years to strengthen access to reproductive health care, which we greatly appreciate, our Commonwealth still sees severe inequalities in access to care. Indeed, Black women are twice as likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women. We have more work to do to break down barriers to the full spectrum of reproductive health care that still exist for Black, Indigenous, and other people of color.

An Act relative to birthing justice in the Commonwealth introduces a critical framework to improve maternal health outcomes and ensure people have the support, education, and access to resources to be empowered throughout their pregnancies. An Act promoting access to midwifery care and out-of-hospital birth options, standalone legislation which is also a core provision of the birthing justice bill, creates a pathway to licensure for Certified Professional Midwives, the key midwifery workforce trained in out-of-hospital births.

These bills advance key recommendations from the Special Commission on Racial Inequities in Maternal Health. When the Legislature creates commissions to investigate policy areas, it is incumbent upon the Legislature to listen to the recommendations. Commissions take time and work from countless legislators, administrators, staff, and outside experts, and the recommendations are the result of such underappreciated work.

By embracing those recommendations, Massachusetts can ensure all pregnant people—regardless of race—have the autonomy, support, and adequate birth options to feel empowered throughout their pregnancies.

Sincerely, 

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts 

A #FlashbackFriday about Disenfranchisement in MA and What You Can Do Today

Although we often think of the history of voting rights in the US as one of ever-forward motion, Massachusetts stands as an outlier. In the late 1990s, after incarcerated individuals in MCI-Norfolk started organizing for better conditions, Republican Governor Bill Cellucci and the MA Legislature responded with retaliation: a multi-step process of disenfranchisement. In 2000, Massachusetts voters approved a constitutional amendment to prohibit people incarcerated for felonies in state prison from voting in state elections; the subsequent year, Cellucci signed a law to extend this prohibition to federal and municipal elections. Our commonwealth did something rare in recent history: it took away the right to vote from a category of people who were formerly enfranchised.

But the tide is turning. On Wednesday, the Joint Committee on Election Laws took the significant step of giving a favorable report to S.8/H.26, constitutional amendments filed by Sen. Liz Miranda and Adam Gomez and Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven that would ensure that incarceration never leads to a loss of voting rights.

Urge your legislators to support the bill and advocate for its advancement in an upcoming constitutional convention.

And in upcoming events….

Wednesday, May 3: Higher Ed for All Speakout

Celebrate graduates and ensure that debt-free public higher ed is an option for future generations!

The Massachusetts State House will soon be considering the Cherish Act (S.816 / H.1260) and Debt-Free Bill (S.823 / H.1265). Collectively, these bills call for debt-free public higher education, increased student supports, better wages and working conditions, and green/healthy buildings.

Join the Higher Ed for All coalition on the State House steps and share your testimony alongside graduates, students, faculty, librarians, staff, and community from across the commonwealth!

  • 12:00-12:55 PM: Speak Out
  • 12:55 PM: Group Photo
Higher Ed for All

Thursday, May 4: Medicare for All Lobby Day

The Medicare for All Lobby Day will take place on Thursday, May 4, from 10AM to 3PM at the State House. RSVP here to let Mass-Care know you can join!

The polls close soon…where is your vote?

It’s finally Election Day!!!  
This year’s ballot questions have the possibility to greatly impact the safety and equity of life in Massachusetts.

Whether that impact will be positive or negative is up to your YES votes.

Below is an explanation of why we have endorsed YES on Questions 1, 2, and 4 (and for those select districts, 5 and 6). Please share these resources with your family, friends and neighbors and help us promote progressive policy.

YES ON 1: Fair Share Amendment

The Fair Share Amendment – Question 1 on the November ballot – will allow Massachusetts to improve our transportation and public education systems by making the very rich pay their fair share. Question 1 would create a 4 percent tax on the portion of a person’s annual income above $1 million and constitutionally dedicate the funds to be spent on transportation and public education. Only people who earn more than $1 million annually will be impacted; 99% of us won’t pay a penny more. And we’ll all benefit from better schools, roads, bridges, and public transportation.

We know that there are lots of questions about how the tax will be implemented and spent. The Fair Share FAQ website has factual, easy to understand answers, including in the extremely rare instances where it will apply to the sale of houses and businesses.

YES on 2: Better Dental Care

In Massachusetts, we have a law that requires medical insurance plans to spend at least 88% of all premiums on health care or efforts to improve the quality of health care delivery. However, no such requirement exists for dental insurance. If Question 2 passes, a minimum of 83% of your premium would have to be spent on care, rather than profit, and strengthen financial transparency of dental insurance companies.

To learn how a Yes vote on Question 2 will require more patient dollars to be spent on patient care check out the Yes on 2 website FAQ.

YES on 4: Safer Roads

A YES on 4 would uphold the Work & Family Mobility Act, a bill passed by 75% of the MA Legislature that would allow qualified drivers – regardless of immigration status – to pass a road test, buy insurance, obtain a license and legally drive in Massachusetts. By voting YES ON 4, Massachusetts voters will ensure that immigrants without status can legally make essential trips, like dropping off kids at school and getting to work, while promoting road safety for all of us.

Learn more about the positive impact similar legislation has made in other states and why it should stay law by visiting the Safer Roads MA FAQ site.

Wait, Is There a Q5 or a Q6, too?

In select state representative districts, there are non-binding advisory questions as well, and if you see them on your ballot, we recommend voting YES on these questions also:

  • YES on 5, which would instruct the district’s state representative to support legislation to create a single payer health care system in Massachusetts so that we finally treat health care as a right, not a privilege.
  • YES on 6, which would instruct the district’s state representative to support a change to the MA House’s rules enabling all legislative committees’ votes to be public, posted online as they are in most other states.

Both are clear and simple; and lots of YES votes send a strong message to your state representative.

Some final voting reminders…

If you have any questions about the ballot questions or making your vote count, please feel free to respond to this email- we are here to help!

Medicare for All: Treating Health Care as a Human Right

Public health image

Tuesday, October 26, 2021

Chairwoman Friedman, Chairman Lawn, and members of the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing:

Thank you for holding this hearing today. My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the chair of the Issues Committee of Progressive Massachusetts. Progressive Massachusetts is a statewide grassroots advocacy organization devoted to shared prosperity, racial and social justice, good government and strong democracy, and environmental protection and sustainable infrastructure.

Progressive Massachusetts urges a favorable report for S.766/H.1267: An Act establishing Medicare for All in Massachusetts.

Massachusetts has a storied role in the history of the fight for universal health care in the US. Our former senator Ted Kennedy was a longtime champion of single payer, and our 2006 health care reform law was a model for the Affordable Care Act nationally.

Although our health care reform law, boosted by the ACA, has helped Massachusetts achieve near-full universality in health insurance coverage, we still see underinsurance, high premiums, high rates of medical debt, and significant disparities—all inevitable outcomes of a reliance on private sector provision. Universal coverage alone doesn’t guarantee affordability, quality, or equity without additional steps.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made the flaws of our current system clear. As we recognize the central public health message that our health is intertwined, we must build that recognition into health care delivery and ensure everyone can access the best-quality care possible. When anyone is too afraid of medical bills or debt to seek the care they need, we are all worse off.

The US remains the only advanced industrial country that has not recognized this as a fundamental right, but Massachusetts can lead the way. A single payer system would save the Commonwealth money through increased efficiency; take the burden of rising health care costs off small businesses, municipalities, and families; eliminate medical debt and medical bankruptcy; and finally guarantee access to quality, affordable health care as a right for all residents of the Commonwealth.

We often hear rhetoric around “choice” in our health care system. And indeed, there are plenty of places where “choice” is important, where it provides a valuable outlet for self-expression. Health insurance is not that. “Choice” in health insurance only means “you get as much as you can afford, and no more.”

The way we design our health care system has a significant impact on the lives of all residents of the Commonwealth, and putting equity and justice at the center of such a design is vital to ensuring that every person is able to live up to their full potential.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Chair, Issues Committee

Progressive Massachusetts