State's $28b budget delayed
Submitted by seachange on Mon, 2008-07-07 00:53.
Taxes, healthcare are sticking points. Matt Viser, Boston Globe, July 1, 2008 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. ... [T]he 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. ... State
Return to the table
July 4, 2008
Senator President Therese Murray
State House, Boston
Dear Senator Murray:
My son served in Iraq for 18 months and I was blessed to get him back alive. Through his stories about the Iraqi people, and how they live, I realized how lucky we really are. As I sit here on the 4th of July, I am thinking of all the freedoms we are letting slip away. Many of us hoped that when or if a woman was in charge of things, that government would be more humane and thoughtful.
You have the opportunity, and an obligation, to prove that to be true. I can't remember a time in Massachusetts when we have been in worse financial shape, or a time when "the people" felt more disenfranchised.
It appears that the Massachusetts legislature has dug in their heels on this failing insurance mandate, much like George Bush with the Iraq war. Two years in, and no clear plan how to get us out, how to pay for an ever escalating cost, that is unsustainable the way it is, or most importantly how to cover everyone. Wasn't the goal of reform to cover everyone? To acutally get everyone "access" to the health care system, was our lofty goal, and this has not achieved that. We have failed with this version. Raising fines on people won't get anyone medical care.
Raising co-pays, premiums and deductibles ($2,000) for the very people you legislated must enroll is definitely not the answer for the citizens you represent. It's an easy fix for the health plans, who are top heavy with administration costs, and whose CEOs are all millionaires! A millionaire thinks that a premium of 3-400 dollars a month is "affordable" because that's their pocket money. For someone making 40,000 dollars a year, that is their monthly utility bill or their grocery bill. The Connector has not made this affordable and should be disconnected. They should not tell me what is affordable until they have lived in my house on my paycheck.
Why not return to the table? Amend the Chapter 58 law and try something else. Try the Massachusetts Health Care trust, instead of the three trusts, that I see in the EOHHS line items now in place? You are responsible to the people of Massachusetts and your own conscience, not the Insurance industry. They won't clean up their own house, financially, why should all of us suffer for that.
As a taxpayer, I resent all of my money going to shore up this version of health care reform. I want my tax dollars spread around in a bad economy. Line items like Meals On Wheels got little to no increase, and state funding to the Caregivers program got zeroed out. Isn't nutrition basic to good health? Haven't the cost of gas and food gone up dramatically? Caregiving has been studied by all of the Universities. Stress causes illness. The trickle down effect of health reform, and a bad economy, has put people out of work and moving out of Massachusetts. The goal was to have a healthier state.
Be the hero that the citizens of Massachusetts need, Senator Murray. Show the nation that a woman in charge does change things.
Sincerely,
Janet Hand
Arlington