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Boston Globe
2 days ago
- Politics
- Boston Globe
After passage of Trump's ‘Big Beautiful Bill,' some low-income workers ask: How will I support my family?
Trump's so-called Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up All told, this legislation will Advertisement 'Any time any sort of social safety nets are defunded, it makes me mad. Especially when I know that the savings from those cuts are going to the super-elite rich class, it's even more maddening,' said Talbot, 41, whose wife is a Navy veteran on disability. Advertisement He can't even think about his daughters' college funds or saving for retirement, he said, because he's so focused on day-to-day survival. 'It makes me scared to think about how I will support my family if things get harder than they are,' he said. The Trump administration has said the bill will eliminate 'waste, fraud, and abuse' and notes that the In Massachusetts, one of the most expensive states in the country, Several hundred thousand more rely on insurance purchased through the Health Connector, the state marketplace set up under the Affordable Care Act. More than 300,000 residents could Advertisement Lisa Ragland and other workers from Service Employees International Union protested the Republican Medicaid cuts near the US Capitol building in June. Joe Raedle/Getty About 175,000 people are at risk of losing some or all of their food stamp benefits due to expanded work requirements and the termination of benefits for immigrants here legally who fled persecution, many of whom are on a track to get a green card. For Christiana Haramut, the uncertainty of if or how her benefits could be affected is the hardest part. Haramut was working as a recovery coach in Holyoke until she was appointed guardian of her now 3-year-old grandson and went back to school. She receives food stamps and MassHealth, in addition to cash assistance and a housing subsidy, and worries that every safety net could be at risk, including the Social Security her parents rely on. 'I'm assuming it will be under attack soon if it isn't already,' she said. The drop in federal funding, coupled with increased work verification requirements and other administrative tasks, could have a big impact on access for working families if states don't increase staff and IT funding, said Victoria Negus, senior economic justice advocate at the Law Reform Institute. Massachusetts has the resources to mitigate the worst harms of the measure, she said, although it will require new investments. The law also changed how benefits are calculated in the future, Negus said, essentially freezing in place anything beyond cost-of-living updates. Data about changing shopping habits, for instance, such as the fact that most people now buy canned beans instead of less expensive dried beans, will no longer be factored in. 'The bill is the largest handoff of dollars from folks who are struggling to those who are wealthy,' Negus said. 'And the way that handoff happens is both clear-cut – slashing eligibility for SNAP and Medicaid – and very nefarious, by implementing changes that cut at the knees the ways that states like Massachusetts have tried to make these programs work better.' Advertisement Data show that the Among the biggest employers of people receiving benefits, the agency found, are major retail, restaurant, and grocery store chains such as Amazon and Walmart – led by billionaires Jeff Bezos and the Walton family, respectively, who stand to benefit greatly from tax breaks in the bill. For the top fifth of all earners, these changes will result in an average 2.3 percent boost in after-tax income over the next decade, according to a the Advertisement In Massachusetts, Dunkin' had the highest number of workers on SNAP, the GAO reported, and the state employed the most people receiving Medicaid. Dunkin' did not respond to a request for comment. A state spokesperson said that Massachusetts 'will continue to ensure people receive the benefits they are eligible for and understand how these changes might affect them.' The PCA Workforce Council, the state entity that employs personal care attendants to help elderly and disabled residents, also had a high number of workers receiving both types of benefits. The 58,000-person workforce, comprising largely women of color, including many immigrants, generally makes between $20 and $22 an hour, and the majority of them are on MassHealth or subsidized Health Connector insurance, according to their union. Care attendants' fluctuating hours and complicated employer status – hired by individuals but paid by the state – make eligibility requirements particularly complicated, said Rebecca Gutman, vice president of home care at 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East. And this will surely be intensified by new paperwork requirements. 'PCAs struggle every day with balancing the pay that they're receiving, putting food on the table, taking care of their kids, accessing health insurance,' Gutman said. 'This law is absolutely going to exacerbate wage inequality in our country, and it's going to hit women and people of color the hardest.' Personal care assistant Fe Guidry swept the kitchen floor in the New Bedford apartment of her client, Aquilina Gili. MARK STOCKWELL FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE Fe Guidry, 70, lives in New Bedford and works as a personal care assistant for two elderly women. But one of them is often gone, either in Florida or the Philippines, leaving her with just 14 hours of work a week. She needs every cent of her $89 monthly SNAP benefits to buy groceries, she said: Advertisement 'The price of the commodities now is always rising.' Low-income workers are already plagued with anxiety about being able to feed and care for their families, said Alicia Fleming, executive director of the economic justice nonprofit Massachusetts Jobs With Justice. And the still-unknown effects of the bill are adding more stress. 'I think what we're seeing now,' said Fleming, who relied on fuel assistance and day care vouchers when she was a young single mother, 'is that our society is set up to create an environment where corporations can thrive and the people who support those corporations, the workers, they struggle to survive.' This story was produced by the Globe's team, which covers the racial wealth gap in Greater Boston. You can sign up for the newsletter . Katie Johnston can be reached at
Boston Globe
2 days ago
- Health
- Boston Globe
One big disaster for Massachusetts health care
Get The Gavel A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Enter Email Sign Up One major impact of the bill they'll need to contend with is the new administrative barriers, like work requirements, it created for enrollees in MassHealth, the state Medicaid program for low-income residents. Advertisement While the vast majority of Medicaid recipients are already working or would qualify for an exemption, states with work requirements typically State officials should work with community organizations, health care providers, and consumer advocates like Health Care for All on a public education and assistance campaign that informs MassHealth enrollees of the new requirements and helps them fill out paperwork. Advertisement The bill will also require states to redetermine enrollees' eligibility for MassHealth twice a year instead of annually. To satisfy that requirement, the state should also work on establishing automated systems that let information be verified through data-matching, so the state uses information it collects through other state agencies (like unemployment insurance filings) to confirm eligibility for MassHealth. The good news is state officials While the goal should be keeping people insured, some residents will lose insurance for paperwork reasons, or because they can no longer afford it, or because they lose eligibility. For example, many immigrants who have legal status in the US but not permanent residency (like refugees or asylum seekers) will no longer be eligible for Medicaid or for subsidies from Massachusetts' Health Connector. It's also still unknown whether Congress will extend Of course, people without insurance will still get sick, and they are likely to land in hospital emergency rooms. Massachusetts' Health Safety Net fund, which helps hospitals pay for uncompensated care, is The financial hits to Medicaid will come from several policy changes included in the bill. The biggest ones are restrictions on the extent to which the state can rely on provider taxes and state-directed payments, which are complicated methods by which the state uses state money (including fees collected from hospitals and providers) to draw federal Medicaid matching money, then distributes that money back to health care providers (hospitals, nursing homes, and community health centers). Advertisement There are no easy answers as the Legislature and governor decide how to respond. Lawmakers will likely face pressure to raise new revenues through taxes or dip into the state's $8.1 billion rainy day fund to avoid major cuts to MassHealth benefits or eligibility. But the magnitude of the cuts will make it impossible for the state to backfill the entire amount. At the same time, ripples from the Medicaid cuts will affect the entire health care system. The organization There will likely be targeted areas where the state will want to replace federal with state money — for example, if money is need to avoid the shuttering of essential services, like a rural hospital's emergency room or the sole regional facility for labor and delivery. There may need to be cuts to MassHealth benefits, and enrollees will be forced to pay new federally required copays for many services. Some rates paid to providers may be cut. Advertisement Massachusetts also needs to negotiate a new waiver with federal Medicaid officials by the end of 2027, which sets the parameters around how MassHealth is structured and what services the federal government will cover. Massachusetts Congressman Jake Auchincloss suggested, in an interview with the editorial board, that the state could seek to negotiate more state flexibility and autonomy in running its own program — for example, to make enrollment easier, to experiment with pilot programs, do more with alternative payment systems, or get paid for investments that save Medicare money, like community-based care for seniors. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the state convened state policy experts and stakeholders to respond to the crisis. The Healey administration should consider reviving that model today. In a time of scarcity, it's tempting for each segment of the industry to protect its turf. It would be far better to put state policy makers in a room with representatives of hospitals, community health centers, insurers, nursing homes, drug companies, patient advocates, and other health system stakeholders so they can collaborate and chart a path forward that's in the best interest of the Commonwealth's residents. Editorials represent the views of the Boston Globe Editorial Board. Follow us
The Independent
03-07-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Massachusetts advocates fear Trump's bill will unravel health safety net in Obamacare's model state
In the state that served as the model for Obamacare, advocates and health care workers fear the Trump administration is trying to dismantle piece-by-piece a popular program that has provided insurance, preventive care and life-saving medication to hundreds of thousands of people. Provisions contained in both the Senate and House versions of the massive tax and spending cuts bill advancing in Congress — a centerpiece of President Donald Trump's agenda — could strip health insurance from up to a quarter of the roughly 400,000 people enrolled in the Massachusetts Health Connector, according to state estimates. The changes would create anew the coverage gaps state leaders were working to close when Massachusetts in 2006 became the first U.S. state to enact a law requiring nearly every resident to have health insurance, state officials say. Beyond the effect on residents' health, losing care could have broader repercussions — both for the program's finances and residents' ability to make a living. 'The idea of needing to unwind that now and pull back on that promise and commitment is really frustrating and heartbreaking and cruel and counterproductive,' said Audrey Morse Gasteier, executive director of Massachusetts' health insurance marketplace. Trump and Republican supporters in Congress say the changes, which include new documentation requirements and limitations on who can apply for tax credits to help pay for insurance, are necessary to root out what they call fraud, waste and abuse. The Affordable Care Act changes proposed in both versions of the bill, along with massive cuts to Medicaid and other programs, would eliminate roughly $1.1 trillion in health care spending over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. In Lawrence, a mill community of around 90,000 people on the Merrimack River, where more than 80% of the population is Hispanic or Latino, Kesia Moreta said she's already seeing people slip out of the state's health care network because of the Trump administration's aggressive effort to crack down on illegal immigration. Moreta, who manages a program created under the ACA that helps people sign up for coverage, said clients have been missing meetings out of fear that being enrolled for health insurance will harm their effort to stay in the U.S. legally. Recently, a father of a U.S.-born teenage son with epilepsy deleted every email related to his health plan and stopped answering calls from the Connector after watching reports about deportations on social media. When his son's medication ran out, Moreta said the father finally reached out, whispering over the phone, 'Is this going to get me deported?' 'That breaks our hearts,' Moreta said. Proposed changes More than 98% of Massachusetts residents have health insurance, the lowest rate of uninsurance in the country, according to the Massachusetts Health Insurance Survey. Vicky Pulos, an attorney for the Mass Law Reform Institute who helps low-income people gain access to health care, said Republicans who tried and failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act during the first Trump administration have decided to take it apart incrementally despite its growing popularity. 'It really seems like this is just a less transparent way of effectively dismantling the accomplishments of the Affordable Care Act in both Medicaid and the marketplace,' Pulos said. The changes, she added, 'will massively drive up the number of uninsured but without openly repealing the ACA.' Another provision included in both the House and Senate bills would require people applying for or renewing coverage to provide more documentation of their income, household size and immigration status to be eligible for premium tax credits when the state marketplace already has that information, which Morse Gasteier said would cause 'friction, red tape and delays.' The Trump administration has said the proposals will 'put a stop' to immigrants 'stealing taxpayer-funded health care benefits meant for American citizens.' No states use federal money to provide health insurance to people who are in the U.S. illegally. Some, like Massachusetts, use state tax dollars to do so to provide basic primary care services for a small population of vulnerable residents, like children. No undocumented immigrants receive insurance through the state marketplace. Of the 400,000 enrolled in the state marketplace, around 60,000 are noncitizens who are in the U.S. legally and would lose access to federal premium tax credits if either chamber's version of the bill becomes law. The number includes domestic violence and human trafficking victims, refugees, people granted asylum or humanitarian parole, temporary protected status and other work-authorized immigrants. Without the credits, premiums will cost upwards of $500 or $600 — an increase many people can't afford, Morse Gasteier said. Around half are green-card holders with an annual income of $15,000 a year or less. The remaining 40,000 people expected to lose coverage are U.S. citizens Morse Gasteier said could be stymied in applying or recertifying coverage by provisions like the increased documentation requirements. Fears of trust l ost Morse Gasteier said Massachusetts' marketplace worked 'tirelessly' to enroll vulnerable and hard-to-reach populations after the state program — formed under the leadership of then-Gov. Mitt Romney and known as 'Romneycare" — was created. She worries that if people hear help is no longer available, 'entire populations will just sort of give up on health insurance.' In addition to affecting residents' health, that could have an economic impact in the state. Immigrants with legal status enrolled in the state marketplace tend to be younger than the rest of the population, Morse Gasteier said. Their presence brings premiums down for others because they tend to be healthier. In Lawrence, advocates who help people obtain insurance coverage though the ACA marketplace say the burden would fall disproportionately on people with chronic health issues like diabetes and chronic heart disease. The Greater Lawrence Community Action Council assists around 10,000 people a year with either signing up for or renewing health insurance. 'If you're not healthy, let me tell you, you can't work. If you can't work, you can't pay your bills. It's just as simple as that,' said GLCAC CEO Vilma Martinez-Dominguez. Moreta said one man who called her from the emergency room recently said he discovered his health insurance had lapsed. Moreta said she could help him renew it, and urged him to wait at the hospital. He told her not to do anything. He was leaving the hospital. She has no idea what became of him.
Associated Press
03-07-2025
- Health
- Associated Press
Massachusetts advocates fear Trump's bill will unravel health safety net in Obamacare's model state
BOSTON (AP) — In the state that served as the model for Obamacare, advocates and health care workers fear the Trump administration is trying to dismantle piece-by-piece a popular program that has provided insurance, preventive care and life-saving medication to hundreds of thousands of people. Provisions contained in both the Senate and House versions of the massive tax and spending cuts bill advancing in Congress — a centerpiece of President Donald Trump's agenda — could strip health insurance from up to a quarter of the roughly 400,000 people enrolled in the Massachusetts Health Connector, according to state estimates. The changes would create anew the coverage gaps state leaders were working to close when Massachusetts in 2006 became the first U.S. state to enact a law requiring nearly every resident to have health insurance, state officials say. Beyond the effect on residents' health, losing care could have broader repercussions — both for the program's finances and residents' ability to make a living. 'The idea of needing to unwind that now and pull back on that promise and commitment is really frustrating and heartbreaking and cruel and counterproductive,' said Audrey Morse Gasteier, executive director of Massachusetts' health insurance marketplace. Trump and Republican supporters in Congress say the changes, which include new documentation requirements and limitations on who can apply for tax credits to help pay for insurance, are necessary to root out what they call fraud, waste and abuse. The Affordable Care Act changes proposed in both versions of the bill, along with massive cuts to Medicaid and other programs, would eliminate roughly $1.1 trillion in health care spending over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. In Lawrence, a mill community of around 90,000 people on the Merrimack River, where more than 80% of the population is Hispanic or Latino, Kesia Moreta said she's already seeing people slip out of the state's health care network because of the Trump administration's aggressive effort to crack down on illegal immigration. Moreta, who manages a program created under the ACA that helps people sign up for coverage, said clients have been missing meetings out of fear that being enrolled for health insurance will harm their effort to stay in the U.S. legally. Recently, a father of a U.S.-born teenage son with epilepsy deleted every email related to his health plan and stopped answering calls from the Connector after watching reports about deportations on social media. When his son's medication ran out, Moreta said the father finally reached out, whispering over the phone, 'Is this going to get me deported?' 'That breaks our hearts,' Moreta said. Proposed changes More than 98% of Massachusetts residents have health insurance, the lowest rate of uninsurance in the country, according to the Massachusetts Health Insurance Survey. Vicky Pulos, an attorney for the Mass Law Reform Institute who helps low-income people gain access to health care, said Republicans who tried and failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act during the first Trump administration have decided to take it apart incrementally despite its growing popularity. 'It really seems like this is just a less transparent way of effectively dismantling the accomplishments of the Affordable Care Act in both Medicaid and the marketplace,' Pulos said. The changes, she added, 'will massively drive up the number of uninsured but without openly repealing the ACA.' Another provision included in both the House and Senate bills would require people applying for or renewing coverage to provide more documentation of their income, household size and immigration status to be eligible for premium tax credits when the state marketplace already has that information, which Morse Gasteier said would cause 'friction, red tape and delays.' The Trump administration has said the proposals will 'put a stop' to immigrants 'stealing taxpayer-funded health care benefits meant for American citizens.' No states use federal money to provide health insurance to people who are in the U.S. illegally. Some, like Massachusetts, use state tax dollars to do so to provide basic primary care services for a small population of vulnerable residents, like children. No undocumented immigrants receive insurance through the state marketplace. Of the 400,000 enrolled in the state marketplace, around 60,000 are noncitizens who are in the U.S. legally and would lose access to federal premium tax credits if either chamber's version of the bill becomes law. The number includes domestic violence and human trafficking victims, refugees, people granted asylum or humanitarian parole, temporary protected status and other work-authorized immigrants. Without the credits, premiums will cost upwards of $500 or $600 — an increase many people can't afford, Morse Gasteier said. Around half are green-card holders with an annual income of $15,000 a year or less. The remaining 40,000 people expected to lose coverage are U.S. citizens Morse Gasteier said could be stymied in applying or recertifying coverage by provisions like the increased documentation requirements. Fears of trust l ost Morse Gasteier said Massachusetts' marketplace worked 'tirelessly' to enroll vulnerable and hard-to-reach populations after the state program — formed under the leadership of then-Gov. Mitt Romney and known as 'Romneycare' — was created. She worries that if people hear help is no longer available, 'entire populations will just sort of give up on health insurance.' In addition to affecting residents' health, that could have an economic impact in the state. Immigrants with legal status enrolled in the state marketplace tend to be younger than the rest of the population, Morse Gasteier said. Their presence brings premiums down for others because they tend to be healthier. In Lawrence, advocates who help people obtain insurance coverage though the ACA marketplace say the burden would fall disproportionately on people with chronic health issues like diabetes and chronic heart disease. The Greater Lawrence Community Action Council assists around 10,000 people a year with either signing up for or renewing health insurance. 'If you're not healthy, let me tell you, you can't work. If you can't work, you can't pay your bills. It's just as simple as that,' said GLCAC CEO Vilma Martinez-Dominguez. Moreta said one man who called her from the emergency room recently said he discovered his health insurance had lapsed. Moreta said she could help him renew it, and urged him to wait at the hospital. He told her not to do anything. He was leaving the hospital. She has no idea what became of him.
Yahoo
01-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Health coverage losses in Mass. may be even steeper
BOSTON (SHNS) – Tens of thousands of Bay Staters could lose subsidized health insurance through the Massachusetts Health Connector and premiums could rise for most other members under a suite of reforms in the U.S. House-approved reconciliation bill that Gov. Maura Healey dubbed 'devastating.' For months, officials and health care activists have been warning about major impacts to MassHealth from the Medicaid changes sought by Republicans in Congress, who want to fund tax cuts and rein in what they describe as wasteful spending. But the sweeping package that cleared the U.S. House last week features many other provisions that could also impact state-run health insurance marketplaces, including limitations on tax credit eligibility for some immigrants and a shorter open enrollment period. Massachusetts Health Connector Executive Director Audrey Morse Gasteier said as many as 100,000 people — roughly a quarter of all who get their health insurance through the marketplace — could lose their coverage. Taken alongside the roughly 150,000 other people who would lose MassHealth eligibility, Morse Gasteier said the House-approved bill would effectively double the number of Bay Staters without health insurance. '[That] is just such a heartbreaking and catastrophic future to contemplate after Massachusetts, for nearly 20 years, has been at the forefront and really all in on making sure everybody in Massachusetts has health coverage,' Morse Gasteier told the News Service. A Connector spokesperson said the most recent U.S. Census data estimates about 2.6% of Massachusetts residents are uninsured. State law requires Massachusetts residents to be insured, or pay a tax penalty. A June 2024 Center for Health Information and Analysis report estimated 1.7% of Massachusetts residents reported being uninsured in 2023, which translates into about 116,594 residents. Nearly 90% of the uninsured were adults aged 19 to 64, four-fifths were male, and two-thirds of the uninsured had a family income below 300% of the federal poverty level. Under the House bill, premiums are also likely to rise for those who remain insured through Connector plans, Morse Gasteier said. She also forecast a major financial impact, saying the policy changes in the bill and the expected end-of-year expiration of tax credits to help reduce premiums would cost residents and the state a combined $750 million per year. The sweeping federal legislation, which also touches on immigration, artificial intelligence and food aid, features numerous eligibility and spending reforms affecting Medicaid programs and health care marketplaces under the Affordable Care Act. Hannah Frigand, senior director of HelpLine and public policies at Health Care for All, described the package as a 'backdoor repeal of ACA marketplace coverage.' 'It seems like almost the intent of some of these decisions in here is to make it more difficult for the state to provide meaningful access to affordable coverage to individuals,' she said. 'It's so directly attacking [ACA marketplace coverage] in multiple ways to make it less affordable and less accessible.' Kaitlyn Kenney Walsh, vice president of policy and research at the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, said the policies 'will have significant deleterious impact on people getting health insurance coverage through the Health Connector who have come to rely on that coverage.' U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson has targeted July 4 as the deadline to get a final bill to President Donald Trump's desk in order to provide tax relief 'as soon as possible.' 'We have a very delicate equilibrium that we reached on here,' Johnson said last week. 'A lot of work went into this to find exactly the right balance.' It's not clear how the U.S. Senate will respond to the proposal, and a handful of Republicans have voiced concerns that the measure either does not do enough to reduce the national deficit or would harm Medicaid recipients. One of the most significant changes in the bill limits the eligibility of many immigrants for tax credits to help reduce the cost of health insurance plans through state-run marketplaces like the Connector. Under the bill, only lawful permanent residents, Compact of Free Association (COFA) migrants or certain immigrants from Cuba would qualify for subsidized marketplace coverage. Morse Gasteier said that change would cut 55,000 to 60,000 other legally present immigrants in Massachusetts, like those seeking asylum, refugees and those waiting for Medicaid eligibility to begin, from the Health Connector's ranks. The federal bill would create new verification requirements for marketplaces, preventing enrollees from receiving tax credits toward premiums or cost-sharing reductions until their eligibility is confirmed, according to a detailed analysis by health policy nonprofit KFF. It would also largely limit auto-renewals and mandate marketplaces hold annual open enrollment periods from Nov. 1 to Dec. 15, about five weeks shorter than the Health Connector has offered for more than a decade. 'The bill would make it so that people need to verify information before they even see that they qualified for a lower-cost option, which will effectively mean that many people will just think they don't qualify and will not even try to submit documents because they think, 'I'm not eligible for subsidized coverage,' which will prevent many people from actually enrolling into insurance,' Frigand said. Morse Gasteier said the additional hurdles will 'make the process of obtaining and keeping coverage harder for everybody.' If fewer people are covered, she said, the remaining insured population will become higher-risk and higher-cost as a result. 'With respect to the administrative burdens and the red tape and the needless kind of sludge that this bill would erect for people that are trying to get and keep coverage, we would expect — just based on the way health insurance works and the way human behavior operates — younger and healthier people will probably not go through the trouble of making their way through all of these hoops,' she said. And when Bay Staters get ill or injured while not carrying insurance, the eventual health care costs will be 'borne by our entire health care system and passed on to premium payers through hospital debt that needs to be spread across the rest of the population,' Morse Gasteier said. Some of the impact could come not from the reconciliation package itself, but from congressional inaction. The pandemic-era American Rescue Plan Act and Inflation Reduction Act expanded ACA tax credits that help subsidize premium costs, and those credits are set to expire at the end of the year. The federal bill on the move does not extend those credits. 'It's been a really significant help to the state, to the ConnectorCare program and to individuals who are just over that cliff for eligibility for those premium subsidies under the Affordable Care Act baseline,' Morse Gasteier said. State law requires most adults who can afford it to have health insurance coverage for the entire year or pay a tax penalty. Many Bay Staters get health insurance through their employers, and MassHealth provides coverage to those with low incomes or disabilities. The Connector offers plans for individuals who do not qualify for MassHealth and also cannot get covered through their employers, such as people working multiple part-time jobs or gig workers, as well as a subsidized ConnectorCare Program. Healey described the Connector's membership as 'people who make just a little bit too much to qualify for MassHealth but are still just getting by.' 'Who are these people? There are a lot of people running small businesses. They're people who are self-employed,' Healey said at a Tuesday event where she warned about major health care impacts from the reconciliation bill. 'The Republicans and Donald Trump want to slash funding for the Health Connector as well, and this is going to drive up premiums, force 100,000 families to go without coverage. So you can see, the proposed cuts, if they go through, they're devastating for Massachusetts residents, for families, for employers, for our economy, for people across the state.' Lawmakers and Healey agreed on a pilot expanding income eligibility for the ConnectorCare program from 300% of the federal poverty level to 500%. Both Healey and the House in their fiscal 2026 budget bills proposed extending the pilot another year, but the Senate did not include the extension in its redraft. Sen. Cindy Friedman, co-chair of Senate Committee on Steering and Policy, noted Wednesday that the pilot is available, albeit temporarily. 'I would like you to tell your patients that, while it lasts, the Connector in Massachusetts has raised their subsidies to 500% of the poverty level,' Friedman told the CEO of an organization that operates sexual and reproductive health clinics. 'And that has made a real profound difference in people getting into health care.' WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
