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.