BOSTON — The city of Boston is the latest municipality to call for passage of Massachusetts Medicare for All legislation.
As the crisis of soaring health insurance costs continues in Massachusetts, and the legislature does nothing to rein in the costs, cities and towns are calling upon the legislature to enact Medicare for All in Massachusetts, Bill H.1405 and Bill S.860. Mass-Care: the Massachusetts Campaign for Single Payer Health Care (https://masscare.org/) introduced the legislation.
“No one should have to choose between paying their rent, buying groceries, or getting the health care or medication they need,” said Council President Liz Breadon. “Access to health care should be based on the care a person needs, not the amount they’re able to pay.”
Mass-Care Chair David Cohen said, “We are going to see an ever deepening crisis for municipalities and for residents with the Commonwealth approving health insurance rate increases of over 10 percent for 2027. Neither municipalities nor residents can continue to shoulder the ever increasing profits of insurance companies. Passing Medicare for All will provide better coverage for everyone at far lower costs.”
Mass-Care estimates that creating a Massachusetts Health Care Trust would bring down total annual health care costs from $128.6 billion to $98.7 billion, over 23% less than current spending. See https://masscare.org/economic-analysis/.
The Boston resolution and press release are at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BfnIje7dt4l4sdv5O9P2m2qk1EV9lhH1/.
Mass-Care’s library of municipal resolutions is at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ogX-yyCQNfeENQ0sW2VVH4XywpqxIRUl.
Mass-Care’s mission is to establish a Single Payer health care system in Massachusetts so that all residents of the Commonwealth have access to comprehensive, quality, and equitable health care, publicly financed and free of out-of-pocket cost at point-of-care, with free choice of practitioners, because it is a human right, basic to life and human dignity. The Mass-Care Coalition is now 116 organizations. It may be reached at info@masscare.org, 617-297-8011, and www.masscare.org.