Monday, HCFA helped organize a State House event to show widespread support for national health reform.
The speakers represented consumers, labor, religious communities, immigrants, insurers, business leaders, state government, hospitals and physicians. Our united message, echoing the points made in today’s Globe op-ed: National Health Reform is Good for Massachusetts.
On today’s CommonHealth blog, we excerpted some of the key points made by the speakers. Please click over to see who spoke out, and to read all of the reasons why so many groups came out to support national health reform. Or, you can see videos of most of the speakers, on HCFA’s YouTube site.
A number of the speakers focused on how national health reform will expand affordable coverage, by filling in some of the gaps in Chapter 58, the Massachusetts reform law. Our Commonwealth Care program only provides assistance up to 300% of the federal poverty level, about $32,000 for an individual. Many people just over this income find it impossible to afford coverage. The national reform bills would allow them to get assistance, as the bill provide sliding scale subsidies up to 400% of the poverty level. This NECN report introduces us to Maria Velazquez, a caller to HCFA’s Helpline whose health depends on national health reform:
While a wall-to-wall coalition of community leaders spoke out on Monday, on Saturday thousands of citizens marched through Boston, adding their voices to the call for national health reform:
We urge you to join Maria and everyone else who spoke out in calling on our Representatives in Washington to support national reform. Click here for a quick and easy guide to contacting your Representative.
-Brian Rosman
