Coalition makes final push for insurance bill
Yawu Miller
In the last few weeks, activists working with the Worcester nonprofit
Neighbor to Neighbor collected 5,000 signatures for a ballot initiative
aimed at expanding the state’s affordable health care funds.
Last week, 40 of the Worcester activists were in the State House
visiting lawmakers and seeking their support for the measure. They
joined dozens of other activists who are working on the state-wide
initiative aimed at health insurance reform.
The activists are attempting to pass the measure in the state legislature.
If that initiative fails, as Neighbor to Neighbor Executive Director
Carlos Rodriguez notes, the 112,000 signatures the estimated 7,000
activists gathered across the state are more than enough to put
it on the ballot.
“This bill has to pass,” Rodriguez said in a rally before
the lobbying began. “Or else Neighbor to Neighbor will put
it on the ballot in 2006. The bottom line is: we need this bill.”
The initiative, called the Health Access and Affordability Act,
seeks to expand the existing MassHealth insurance program so that
it covers more of the estimated 500,000 working adults and families
who currently have no insurance. The Boston-based Health Care for
All organization cobbled together a coalition including Neighbor
to Neighbor, the Greater Boston Interfaith organization and other
groups across the state as part of a signature-gathering effort.
The initiative would offer coverage to families making up to 200
percent of the federal poverty level ($37,000 for a family of four).
For a family of four making more than 200 percent of the poverty
level MassHealth would offer coverage to children and subsidize
coverage for employers.
Supporters of the initiative estimate its cost at about $500 million
per year. The payoff will be near total health care coverage in
the state.
“We believe that we can cover 95 percent of our people if
we put our heads together and do what needs to be done,” said
Rev. Ray Hammond, who helped spearhead the Greater Boston Interfaith
Organization’s signature collection drive.
While there has been significant resistance from the state’s
business community, state policy makers are likely to pass some
form of reform in the near future, observers say. And, as Health
Care for All Executive Director John McDonough notes, business leaders
have not presented a viable alternative.
“It can’t go on much longer like this,” McDonough
said. “We’re seeing a rapid and alarming erosion in
the proportion of folks who are able to get health care through
their place of employment. That will only get worse as costs continue
to rise.”
The House and Senate are currently working on a compromise bill
that would reconcile differences between their versions of health
insurance reform. In the meantime, Service Employees International
Union Local 1199, which organizes health care workers, is pushing
for the Health Care for All-sponsored House version of the bill.
The union has committed $75,000 to direct mailings and newspaper
advertisements asking voters to apply pressure to their legislators.
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