CLT UPDATE
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Beacon Hill priorities as usual:
Tax first then maybe do some work
In what has become an annual ritual,
Massachusetts lawmakers are blowing the deadline on the start of the new
fiscal year, engaging in extra-inning negotiations, and passing a
stopgap budget to keep state government running while they try to work
out their differences....
"You would have expected it to be done by now," said state Senator
Richard R. Tisei, a Wakefield Republican who is the Senate minority
leader, said of the latest in a long string of overdue budgets.
"I don't know if it's human nature or just the way this place is run,"
he said, "but it seems like there's not a lot of planning or cooperating
between the branches, and that prevents things from getting done." ...
While they were not able to produce the fiscal 2009 budget on time,
legislators did approve one aspect of the plan yesterday, a $1-per-pack
hike of the cigarette tax rate. The increase, which still needs the
governor's signature, would raise an estimated $174 million in revenues.
It would push the price of a pack of cigarettes to $6.41, nearly 40
percent of which would be taxes.
The Boston Globe
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
State's $28b budget delayed
Taxes, healthcare are sticking points
Smokers may have to cough up an extra $1 a
pack to get their nicotine fix this morning after lawmakers passed a cigarette
tax hike just hitting a July 1 deadline last night.
Opponents blasted the last-minute passage of the tax as the bill awaited Gov.
Deval Patrick’s signature. If signed into law, the measure means small business
owners will have short notice to change their prices before the new tax goes
into effect.
“This is outrageous,” said Rep. Vinny DeMacedo (R-Plymouth), who owns a
convenience store. “The logistics of putting a law into effect (this quickly)
just don’t make sense.” ...
Business owners will have to tally all the cigarette packs in their stores and
send the state the tax on the smokes within 20 days, and they’d have to change
the prices on the product when Patrick signs the bill into effect.
“They need to change their scanners, they need to change their labeling. They’re
going to have people working late into the night to deal with this change,”
Diana O’Donoghue, executive director of the New England Convenience Store
Association, said last night....
“We should have done this weeks ago rather than waiting until July 1. It’s
typical. If the money was that important, somebody should have brought this up
two weeks ago, not only from fiscal perspective but also as courtesy to
retailers,” said Sen. Richard Tisei (R-Wakefield.)
Others simply shrugged off the deadline as business as usual.
“It’s the way we do things around here. It may not be right, but it’s not new,”
said one lawmaker.
The Boston Herald
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Pols stick it to smokers with tax
Beacon Hill lawmakers extracted a
dollar-a-pack cigarette tax hike from negotiations on a larger tax bill and
rushed it through to Gov. Deval Patrick's desk Monday, hoping to see the
increase go into effect Tuesday. Critics of the move described it as a fiscal
new year's eve screw-up....
The fast-tracked tax hike cleared the House on a vote of 93-52 and the Senate on
a 26-9 vote. Lawmakers supportive of the tax hike said the state would forego
$680,000 in anticipated new revenues for each day that they failed to get the
increase on the lawbooks....
Supporters of the bill say it will generate $175 million a year for government
programs and help the state pay for the growing costs of subsidized health
insurance under its landmark 2006 access expansion law....
Critics claim the tax hike will hit convenience store owners hard, and without
any formal notice from state tax collectors, and prompt smokers to explore
alternative buying options.
Rep. Viriato deMacedo, a Republican who owns a convenience store in Plymouth,
said many grocers are not aware that the tax hike will take effect Tuesday.
"This is outrageous," deMacedo said. "How can we do something like this to the
small business owners? ...
On a second vote, to make the bill effective immediately rather than wait for a
90-day delay, the House voted in favor, 106 to 35.
With no notices issued from the Department of Revenue to reflect the sudden tax
law change, deMacedo said store owners may unfairly face fines and penalties
unless they adjust their inventory overnight. "It just doesn't make sense," he
said. "It just points to how disconnected we are from the real world."
And Rep. Paul Frost said the tax hike would create a huge price variation
between Massachusetts and New Hampshire, where the current tax is $1.08 per
pack, and predicted, like other lawmakers, that the tax hike would send Bay
State residents north for sales....
While House Republicans said the increase would give Massachusetts the fifth
highest cigarette tax in the country, anti-tobacco advocates predicted huge
public health gains.
Russet Breslau, executive director of Tobacco Free Mass, said the organization
believes the increase in the cigarette tax to $2.51 per pack will prevent 46,000
kids from lighting up and spur 26,000 smokers to quit.
State House News Service
Monday, June 30, 2008
Patrick likely to sign off quickly
on sudden cigarette tax hike
Many critics said passage of the tax law hours
before it was to take effect was unfair to retailers who have had no notice the
additional tax may have been suddenly imposed last night. The law gives
retailers 20 days to pay the additional new tax on all cigarette inventories on
hand when it takes effect.
“This is outrageous,” said Viriato M. deMacedo, R-Plymouth, who joined a chorus
of Republicans and a few Democrats in criticizing the last-minute rush and late
notice to retailers.
“It is almost 3 o’clock right now. By the time we pass this law it will be maybe
3:30 and the Senate may pass it by 5 o’clock, so it will end up on the
governor’s desk at maybe 7 o’clock to go into effect at midnight tonight,” Mr.
deMacedo said.
“There are thousands of small-business owners that have absolutely no idea what
is taking place here today” and will run the risk of penalties and fines for
violations, Mr. deMacedo said....
Meanwhile, critics of that tax, including Rep. George N. Peterson, R-Grafton,
said it would push smokers over the state line for bargains.
Holding his hand to his ear during floor debate in the House, Mr. Peterson asked
lawmakers, “Can you hear that sound? That’s that big sucking sound as people
travel over the border to buy their cigarettes,” he said, arguing people will go
to New Hampshire to save $15 per carton.
Mr. Peterson said New Hampshire recently put off a cigarette tax hike to take
advantage of buyers from the Bay State and estimates it will take in about $50
million next year on sales to Massachusetts residents.
State Rep. Paul K. Frost, R-Auburn, said the bill was only going to help New
Hampshire. “I don’t understand why we are going down this path to help the
economy and businesses in New Hampshire,” Mr. Frost said. “We are picking on a
certain group of people addicted to cigarettes to fund other programs.”
When the bill got to the Senate, Minority Leader Richard R. Tisei, R-Wakefield,
ridiculed the rationale behind taxing smokers more to pay for rising state
health insurance costs. “We are saying, ‘If you smoke, please continue to smoke
because we need this money,’” Mr. Tisei said.
The Telegram & Gazette
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Cigarette tax takes breather
11th-hour passage awaits Patrick’s OK
The Department of Public Health is introducing
a pilot program to subsidize health insurance for illegal immigrants,
Commissioner John Auerbach announced yesterday during a MetroWest-focused
meeting.
Starting this summer, the department plans to enroll 50 uninsured people from a
group of patients currently relying on the state's Safety Net Pool to cover
their medical costs, Auerbach said. Given the recent health insurance mandate
tracked through income tax returns, Auerbach said that group is now largely made
up of illegal immigrants.
The MetroWest Daily News
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Pilot program to offer free health care
to illegal immigrants
Chip Ford's CLT Commentary
There's only two things that can
really be expected from a legislator. The first is to take the oath of
office to uphold the constitution, and we know how much this means to
most of them. The second is abiding by the constitutional mandate
to finalize a state budget for the next fiscal year before it begins,
which is today. If they would just get the budget done on time and
do nothing else, nobody would notice they're even there, and wouldn't
that be nice.
There's no FY 2009 budget yet, but the
majority of "The Best Legislature Money Can Buy" did find the time to do
what they most enjoy: Raising taxes. Massachusetts may be
living hand-to-mouth today on a $1 billion temporary budget that'll get
the state through a mere two weeks, but the Legislature has its
priorities, and tax hikes always top that list. And when it comes
to tax hikes, things can happen on Bacon Hill fast enough to cause
whiplash.
Never mind that the $1/pack increase
in the cigarette tax whooshed through both House and Senate last
evening, but it contained an "emergency preamble" so it'd take effect
this morning instead of taking the usual 90-days required for normal
legislation. With the governor's signature it is the law
immediately.
Never mind what this does to those
small business that sell cigarettes -- a product which just jumped
another buck overnight -- those businesses responsible for collecting,
documenting, and paying the tax to the state for each of those
individual sales. "Let them eat cake," or as the State House News
Service reported, "Rep. William Straus (D-Mattapoisett) said trade
associations and most retailers have been aware for months that the
House and Senate had gone on record in favor of a July 1 cigarette tax
hike."
In other words, the merchants should
have known it was coming -- unlike the state budget which Straus
and his fellow legislators are constitutionally required to have
done by yesterday -- but didn't get around to.
Those merchants should know how
The System works on Beacon Hill. As one legislator put it, “It’s
the way we do things around here. It may not be right, but it’s not
new.” That sums it up succinctly.
My goodness, that tax hike had
to be slammed through overnight -- after all, it would otherwise cost
the state $680,000 a day in additional revenue starting today!
That would never do. They need that extra cash to plug the
"unexpected" overruns in the state's only-in-the-nation universal health
insurance mandate.
How could the burgeoning costs be
unexpected when the pols keep adding to and expanding it. Now we
learn that free health insurance will be taxpayer-subsidized for illegal
aliens. Oh, but it's only a "pilot program" we're assured, as if a
pilot program is intended to be transient, expected to fail and be
rejected.
I hope the state's sizable illegal
population all smoke a pack or two a day, so they'll be contributing at
least some of that additional $680,000 a day the rest of the smokers
must pay.
In governmentese, a "pilot program"
for a spending plan is the equivalent of a "temporary tax" when
increasing revenue. Both mean "get it past the suckers then make
it permanent."
That income tax repeal in November is
looking better by the day.
 |
|
Chip Ford |
The Boston Globe
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
State's $28b budget delayed
Taxes, healthcare are sticking points
By Matt Viser
It's July 1. Do you know where your state budget is?
In what has become an annual ritual, Massachusetts lawmakers are blowing
the deadline on the start of the new fiscal year, engaging in
extra-inning negotiations, and passing a stopgap budget to keep state
government running while they try to work out their differences.
House and Senate budget writers were not talking yesterday, but
officials said the main sticking points blocking agreement on the $28
billion plan were corporate income taxes, legislative earmarks, and how
much federal money to expect to support the state's health insurance
efforts.
"You would have expected it to be done by now," said state Senator
Richard R. Tisei, a Wakefield Republican who is the Senate minority
leader, said of the latest in a long string of overdue budgets.
"I don't know if it's human nature or just the way this place is run,"
he said, "but it seems like there's not a lot of planning or cooperating
between the branches, and that prevents things from getting done."
While they were not able to produce the fiscal 2009 budget on time,
legislators did approve one aspect of the plan yesterday, a $1-per-pack
hike of the cigarette tax rate. The increase, which still needs the
governor's signature, would raise an estimated $174 million in revenues.
It would push the price of a pack of cigarettes to $6.41, nearly 40
percent of which would be taxes.
A committee of six lawmakers - three from the House, three from the
Senate - has been meeting for weeks behind closed doors. The meetings
over how to spend the $28 billion are held in private, making it
difficult to determine when talks will wrap up. House Speaker Salvatore
F. DiMasi and Senate President Therese Murray would not comment
yesterday, and even rank-and-file members said they were not quite sure
what is causing the delay.
Later in the day, the chairmen of the House and Senate committees on
Ways and Means released a joint statement. Enlightenment on progress was
in short supply, but it did contain an abundance of generalities.
"The House and Senate are working to resolve differences between our
respective budgets as soon as possible," read the statement, signed by
Representative Robert A. DeLeo, a Winthrop Democrat, and Senator Steven
C. Panagiotakos, a Lowell Democrat. "Our shared goal in that effort is
to produce a budget that improves quality of life, stimulates regional
economic growth, and places the Commonwealth on solid fiscal ground."
To keep the government running, Governor Deval Patrick signed last week
a $1 billion temporary budget that allows the state to pay its bills for
two weeks into July. Lawmakers are hoping to get a plan approved by the
end of the week, and the governor will have 10 days to review it and
issue any vetoes.
"We have been working very harmoniously, and we're getting there," said
Senator Stephen M. Brewer, a Warren Democrat who is a member of the
conference committee. "We will have a budget in the next three days."
Delayed budgets have become a virtual standard on Beacon Hill, although
budget observers said that in recent years Democratic lawmakers
submitted their budgets early to avoid being blamed for delays by
Governor Mitt Romney, a Republican.
In 1999, budget deliberations between House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran
and Senate President Thomas F. Birmingham languished until mid-November.
Two years later, negotiations went even further, and the budget was not
completed until Dec. 5. Massachusetts was the only state operating
without a budget, and it was the longest delay since 1965, when the
Legislature approved its spending plan on Dec. 31.
"It's one thing to have it a few days late," said Michael J. Widmer,
president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. "It's another to
have it several weeks or months late."
This year, the budget holdups appear to be less epic.
"In a negotiating process, one side has to give in to the other, and
nobody wants to be the first to give in," said Noah Berger, executive
director of the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center.
This year, lawmakers have clashed over how sharply to change corporate
income tax codes, tightening rules while simultaneously trimming the
corporate tax rate. The House plan for changes would bring in an
additional $135 million for the state, while the Senate plan would bring
in $297 million.
There are also disagreements over a House amendment that would open the
door to offshore tax breaks. Under the provision, large corporations
could avoid state taxes by maintaining large portions of their business
operations overseas.
Budget writers are also unsure how much money to dedicate to the state's
healthcare law. The state has been negotiating with federal officials
over extending a Medicaid waiver that helps subsidize coverage for
low-income residents. The waiver was set to expire June 30, but federal
officials have allowed for an extension. In the meantime, the clock is
ticking.
"If it's a week or two, it's not a big deal," said Jim Stergios,
executive director of the Pioneer Institute. "But if it's more than
that, it can really grind the wheels of government services to a halt."
The Boston Herald
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Pols stick it to smokers with tax
By Hillary Chabot
Smokers may have to cough up an extra $1 a pack to get their nicotine
fix this morning after lawmakers passed a cigarette tax hike just
hitting a July 1 deadline last night.
Opponents blasted the last-minute passage of the tax as the bill awaited
Gov. Deval Patrick’s signature. If signed into law, the measure means
small business owners will have short notice to change their prices
before the new tax goes into effect.
“This is outrageous,” said Rep. Vinny DeMacedo (R-Plymouth), who owns a
convenience store. “The logistics of putting a law into effect (this
quickly) just don’t make sense.”
An aide said the governor is inclined to sign the tax hike as early as
today, but had not yet reviewed the bill.
The tax increase, which pols say will bring $175 million to the state
toward growing health care costs, needed immediate passage because
lawmakers had written a July 1 implementation date into the bill.
The state could have lost $680,000 a day in expected tax revenues if
they missed the deadline.
The tax on a pack of cigarettes will rise to $2.51 under the bill,
bringing the cost of the average pack to $6.41 in the Bay State.
Business owners will have to tally all the cigarette packs in their
stores and send the state the tax on the smokes within 20 days, and
they’d have to change the prices on the product when Patrick signs the
bill into effect.
“They need to change their scanners, they need to change their labeling.
They’re going to have people working late into the night to deal with
this change,” Diana O’Donoghue, executive director of the New England
Convenience Store Association, said last night.
Some lawmakers were bewildered as to why a final vote on the tax hike,
which received early approval in April, went down to the wire.
“We should have done this weeks ago rather than waiting until July 1.
It’s typical. If the money was that important, somebody should have
brought this up two weeks ago, not only from fiscal perspective but also
as courtesy to retailers,” said Sen. Richard Tisei (R-Wakefield.)
Others simply shrugged off the deadline as business as usual.
“It’s the way we do things around here. It may not be right, but it’s
not new,” said one lawmaker.
State House News Service
Monday, June 30, 2008
Patrick likely to sign off quickly
on sudden cigarette tax hike
By Michael Norton, Kyle Cheney and Jim O'Sullivan
Beacon Hill lawmakers extracted a dollar-a-pack cigarette tax hike from
negotiations on a larger tax bill and rushed it through to Gov. Deval
Patrick's desk Monday, hoping to see the increase go into effect
Tuesday. Critics of the move described it as a fiscal new year's eve
screw-up.
The July 1 implementation date was written into House and Senate bills
raising taxes on larger corporations while calling for a gradual
decrease in the state's overall corporate excise tax rate. A conference
committee reached resolution on that bill early Monday night, after
lawmakers carved out the cigarette tax hike and whisked it through.
The fast-tracked tax hike cleared the House on a vote of 93-52 and the
Senate on a 26-9 vote. Lawmakers supportive of the tax hike said the
state would forego $680,000 in anticipated new revenues for each day
that they failed to get the increase on the lawbooks.
Aides to Gov. Deval Patrick said he is expected to sign the bill as
early as tomorrow.
Supporters of the bill say it will generate $175 million a year for
government programs and help the state pay for the growing costs of
subsidized health insurance under its landmark 2006 access expansion
law.
"This will go a long way toward funding health care," said Revenue
Committee co-chair Sen. Cynthia Creem.
Critics claim the tax hike will hit convenience store owners hard, and
without any formal notice from state tax collectors, and prompt smokers
to explore alternative buying options.
Rep. Viriato deMacedo, a Republican who owns a convenience store in
Plymouth, said many grocers are not aware that the tax hike will take
effect Tuesday. "This is outrageous," deMacedo said. "How can we do
something like this to the small business owners?
Rep. William Straus (D-Mattapoisett) said trade associations and most
retailers have been aware for months that the House and Senate had gone
on record in favor of a July 1 cigarette tax hike.
On a second vote, to make the bill effective immediately rather than
wait for a 90-day delay, the House voted in favor, 106 to 35.
With no notices issued from the Department of Revenue to reflect the
sudden tax law change, deMacedo said store owners may unfairly face
fines and penalties unless they adjust their inventory overnight. "It
just doesn't make sense," he said. "It just points to how disconnected
we are from the real world."
And Rep. Paul Frost said the tax hike would create a huge price
variation between Massachusetts and New Hampshire, where the current tax
is $1.08 per pack, and predicted, like other lawmakers, that the tax
hike would send Bay State residents north for sales.
"The benefits that we're trying to get out of this tax won't be there,"
Frost said.
Rep. Robert Hargraves (R-Groton) told his colleagues he'd lost his
brother to smoking, but opposed the increase.
Calling the tax hike "damn stupid," Hargraves said, "This is not going
to do the job. This is going to hurt jobs, it's going to hurt business.
I see it. It's like prohibition. This is not good legislation. They're
going to go over the border. It's not going to stop cancer."
While House Republicans said the increase would give Massachusetts the
fifth highest cigarette tax in the country, anti-tobacco advocates
predicted huge public health gains.
Russet Breslau, executive director of Tobacco Free Mass, said the
organization believes the increase in the cigarette tax to $2.51 per
pack will prevent 46,000 kids from lighting up and spur 26,000 smokers
to quit. The bill cut loose Monday does not include a Senate-approved
repeal of the state's minimum cigarette pricing law, an effort sponsored
by Senate Republicans that remains held up in conference committee. "Our
concern is that if you repeal minimum pricing you wash away many of the
potential public health impacts," Breslau told the News Service.
Health Care Financing Committee Cochairman Sen. Richard Moore
(D-Uxbridge) predicted the estimated revenues from the tax hike would
materialize and serve as a financing "bridge" until cost control efforts
currently in the works are finalized and take effect. But Senate
Minority Leader Richard Tisei said 49 of 60 cigarette tax hikes enacted
nationwide between 2002 and 2006 have failed to generate the revenues
estimated by proponents.
State government in Massachusetts has grown increasingly dependent on
"regressive" taxes on cigarette smokers and Tisei questioned the wisdom
of relying on smokers to produce revenues to pay for subsidized health
insurance. Jokingly, he told his colleagues they were encouraging new
smokers to help pay for health care access laws.
Vermont's $1.79 per pack tax is slated to jump 20 cents on Tuesday, on
the heels of a 60-cent hike in 2006. New Hampshire's $1.08 per pack levy
would rise to $1.44 in October if the tax doesn't meet a $48 million
revenue benchmark between July and October, according to reports.
The Telegram & Gazette
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Cigarette tax takes breather
11th-hour passage awaits Patrick’s OK
By John J. Monahan
State lawmakers and the governor’s staff were scrambling last night to
formally adopt a $1-per-pack cigarette tax hike, trying to get it signed
into law hours before it was scheduled to go into effect at midnight.
A spokeswoman for the governor said last night, however, it appeared
likely the governor would wait until today to sign the bill, which could
push the effective date back a day.
The legislation is aimed at collecting $174 million in new cigarette
taxes over the next year, which includes revenue from the additional $1
per pack on all cigarettes that are in store inventories when the law
takes effect. It was separated from another tax bill stuck in conference
committee and put before the House late yesterday afternoon, beginning
an unusually rushed enactment process.
The bill was given initial approval in the House on a vote of 93-52
shortly after 3 p.m., sent to the Senate for quick approval on a 26-9
vote and then back to both chambers for final enactment votes last night
before being sent to Gov. Deval L. Patrick.
Rebecca E. Deusser, spokeswoman for the governor, said he might not sign
the bill last night. “He’s inclined to sign the bill. He wants to look
at the legislation first and he could sign it as soon as tomorrow,” she
said, referring to today.
Many critics said passage of the tax law hours before it was to take
effect was unfair to retailers who have had no notice the additional tax
may have been suddenly imposed last night. The law gives retailers 20
days to pay the additional new tax on all cigarette inventories on hand
when it takes effect.
“This is outrageous,” said Viriato M. deMacedo, R-Plymouth, who joined a
chorus of Republicans and a few Democrats in criticizing the last-minute
rush and late notice to retailers.
“It is almost 3 o’clock right now. By the time we pass this law it will
be maybe 3:30 and the Senate may pass it by 5 o’clock, so it will end up
on the governor’s desk at maybe 7 o’clock to go into effect at midnight
tonight,” Mr. deMacedo said.
“There are thousands of small-business owners that have absolutely no
idea what is taking place here today” and will run the risk of penalties
and fines for violations, Mr. deMacedo said.
The wording that legally binds retailers to pay the tax on all
cigarettes sold after the effective date was included in the initial tax
bill proposal that was widely publicized last month. But without being
adopted, state agencies were not in a position to notify convenience
stores and other cigarette outlets of the details in advance. The change
would bring the state tax on cigarettes to $2.51 per pack.
State Rep. John J. Binienda, D-Worcester, chairman of the House Revenue
Committee, defended the bill, saying quick action was needed to protect
the anticipated revenues from the new tax that are being relied on to
fund a portion of the state’s mandatory health care subsidies for
lower-income residents. Lawmakers estimated the state would gain
$680,000 a day for every day the new tax is in effect.
All revenues from the additional tax, Mr. Binienda said, “will pay for
health care for those least able to afford it.”
Mr. Binienda said a controversial part of the initial cigarette tax
bill, which would have removed the state’s minimum per-pack price
supports for the tobacco companies, was not included.
Meanwhile, critics of that tax, including Rep. George N. Peterson,
R-Grafton, said it would push smokers over the state line for bargains.
Holding his hand to his ear during floor debate in the House, Mr.
Peterson asked lawmakers, “Can you hear that sound? That’s that big
sucking sound as people travel over the border to buy their cigarettes,”
he said, arguing people will go to New Hampshire to save $15 per carton.
Mr. Peterson said New Hampshire recently put off a cigarette tax hike to
take advantage of buyers from the Bay State and estimates it will take
in about $50 million next year on sales to Massachusetts residents.
State Rep. Paul K. Frost, R-Auburn, said the bill was only going to help
New Hampshire. “I don’t understand why we are going down this path to
help the economy and businesses in New Hampshire,” Mr. Frost said. “We
are picking on a certain group of people addicted to cigarettes to fund
other programs.”
When the bill got to the Senate, Minority Leader Richard R. Tisei,
R-Wakefield, ridiculed the rationale behind taxing smokers more to pay
for rising state health insurance costs. “We are saying, ‘If you smoke,
please continue to smoke because we need this money,’” Mr. Tisei said.
Sen. Harriette L. Chandler, D-Worcester, said the bill was emerging for
consideration the day before it was to take effect because committee
members have been busy working to gain agreement on the measure. “We are
giving them a day to get ready … Everybody knew this was coming,” she
said.
Ms. Chandler said when cigarette taxes were boosted in the 1990s,
proponents expected “a huge drop” in smoking rates. “It really hasn’t
happened,” she said, diminishing the argument this time around. “We are
trying to curb smoking, but we are also trying to use this as a revenue
source.”
Rep. Lewis G. Evangelidis, R-Holden, said it was a cost-of-living issue.
“With people having such a difficult time to make ends meet, this is the
wrong time to make it more expensive to do business in the commonwealth
and at the same time taking more money out of people’s pockets,” he
said.
The MetroWest Daily News
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Pilot program to offer free health care
to illegal immigrants
By Michael Morton
The Department of Public Health is introducing a pilot program to
subsidize health insurance for illegal immigrants, Commissioner John
Auerbach announced yesterday during a MetroWest-focused meeting.
Starting this summer, the department plans to enroll 50 uninsured people
from a group of patients currently relying on the state's Safety Net
Pool to cover their medical costs, Auerbach said. Given the recent
health insurance mandate tracked through income tax returns, Auerbach
said that group is now largely made up of illegal immigrants.
To recruit the 50 test cases, Auerbach's department will send letters to
some of the most frequent users of the Safety Net Pool. The department
will then subsidize insurance coverage from private providers, tracking
the volunteers to see if their health improves and if an expanded
program could save the state money.
"We want to make sure we get results," Auerbach said after yesterday's
meeting at the historic Gore Place estate in Waltham.
An annual event for the last few years, the meeting is held to discuss
the department's initiatives and data and to get feedback from community
health providers in the agency's "MetroWest" region stretching from
Newton to Westborough.
While MetroWest has the lowest regional diabetes mortality rate,
Auerbach said the disease was a growing state problem, with schools now
encountering students with Type II diabetes. The commissioner called for
community partners to help with prevention efforts, and said his
department wanted the Legislature to require more screenings for the
disease and to limit junk food at schools, as well as to provide
incentives for doctors to check in more frequently with their diabetic
patients. Type II diabetes is not insulin dependent.
"I don't think we're going to see measurable improvement unless we
address it on many fronts," Auerbach said.
In other health areas, MetroWest residents have lower blood pressure on
the whole than the rest of the state and are less likely to be obese,
though Auerbach said weight remained a statewide concern. His department
has started another pilot program encouraging employers to offer yoga
and other healthy activities for their employees, with the agency hoping
to recruit its first businesses in the region when the initiative is
expanded in September.
As for disparities in health for minorities, MetroWest has lower rates
for diabetes among whites, blacks, Asians and Hispanics compared with
the state average for each racial or ethnic category. However, the
region reflects the same health differences between the groups, with
blacks facing the highest rate of diabetes, followed by Hispanics,
whites and Asians.
In response, the Department of Public Health has awarded $1 million in
grants to community groups to address the problem and created the Office
of Health Equity.
While applauding the efforts, Edna Smith of the Greater Framingham
Community Church said minorities often don't have easy access to medical
care, and, when they do, they often don't receive the proper services or
must deal with providers who are not sensitive to their needs and
concerns. She advised health professionals coming into minority
communities to work with local groups and to take cultural norms into
account.
"There's a huge need out there, but you need to know how to approach the
communities," Smith said during a panel discussion after Auerbach's
presentation. "You can't go out and say, 'Here I am. I'm the missionary
here to help you."'
In the question-and-answer session that followed, Ann Farrell, the
assistant director of Northeastern University's School Health Institute,
asked Auerbach to speak with state superintendents about placing more
value on school nurses and trying to keep them out of budget cuts.
"I think they need to get the message of how important school health
services are," she said.
Auerbach, who earlier said school nurses were needed to provide health
services to the student population, replied, "I'm willing to make a
try."
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