Press Release: 3/14/2025
An Act Establishing Medicare for All in Massachusetts is the solution to proposed federal cuts to health care.
Contact: Kimberley Connors, Executive Director, Mass-Care, 617-297-8011, director@masscare.org
Mass-Care has issued the following statement:
The Act creates the Massachusetts Health Care Trust as the Single Payer of the health care costs of Massachusetts residents. It is HD.1228 in the House and SD.2341 in the Senate.
The Republican agenda (to continue giving the superrich super tax cuts) proposes cuts in Medicaid, Medicare, Children’s Health Insurance (CHIP), and SNAP benefits (food stamps); privatizes Medicare and the VA; cuts funding of Community Health Centers; denies care to immigrants; attacks reproductive health care, gender-affirming care, and even vaccines; ends minimum staffing levels in nursing homes; undermines health care research; withdraws the U.S. from the World Health Organization (WHO); and is led by an anti-vaxxer during a lethal measles outbreak.
We think none of this is inevitable. These cuts are extremely unpopular. There is much opposition, even in Red states. The situation is fluid. Don’t agonize, organize.
Nevertheless, we write this to address worries that cuts in federal funding make our plan fiscally unsustainable or that now is not the time for it.
It’s true that the bill expects the Massachusetts Health Care Trust to receive all Medicare and Medicaid (which includes CHIP) money currently spent in Massachusetts. But the current administration’s attack does not affect the viability of the Trust.
If Medicaid is cut, then Massachusetts will either have to accept the cuts, use the “Rainy Day” funds, raise taxes, or move money from other parts of the budget. Or it could save more than enough money with Medicare for All!
Medicaid is a joint endeavor. The U.S. reimburses states for at least half of what they spend on Medicaid (and up to three-quarters for those with the lowest per capita incomes, i.e., many Red states) and 90% of the cost of Medicaid expansion, which Massachusetts entered into.
According to the Commonwealth Fund, a foundation that supports health care research, Massachusetts secured $14 billion in federal support for Medicaid in 2023. From news reports, we estimate a Republican cut in the neighborhood of 15%. That would be $2.1 billion.
Our latest economic analysis (https://masscare.org/economic-analysis/) estimates the savings under Massachusetts Medicare for All at over $37 billion a year (about 30% of current spending). We estimate that just the Trust Fund’s operating surplus would cover the cuts we might see from the Feds.
Regarding Medicare, we of course expect the current administration would not grant Massachusetts a “Medicare waiver” to use its funds for a Single Payer system. But the Massachusetts Medicare for All bill already covers this situation in which Medicare does not pay into the Trust. The bill provides for “Wraparound Coverage for Federal Health Programs,” paying for what Medicare does not. Massachusetts would be a “Two Payer State” instead of a “Single Payer State”.
For some who support Medicare for All, the Republican existential threat to U.S. democracy demands all of our attention and energy, and Medicare for All should wait for a favorable federal government. We disagree because establishing new institutions like Medicare for All, in states where we can, is part and parcel of defending democracy. And, in particular, Single Payer health care gets us democratic control over health care access in Massachusetts.
We do not agree that the barrier to passing Massachusetts Medicare for All is the party in power in D.C. We have a super majority of Democrats in our legislature, along with a Democratic Governor and a plank in their Party Platform, and still couldn’t get the bill out of committee last session, nor for the previous 25 years. During that time, Democrats at times controlled the White House as well as both chambers of Congress. It appears that party alignment is not the ingredient for success. Rather we must tap into the zeitgeist of the times and leverage citizens’ frustration with the health care system as it currently exists.
Mass-Care joins with all who are fighting the administration’s slash-and-burn rampage, especially around health care, public health, and the environment, while we vigorously promote Single Payer universal health care and the expansion of the public sector in these areas as essential to survival.
###
Mass-Care’s mission is to establish a Single Payer health care system in Massachusetts so that all residents of the Commonwealth will 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 basic to life and human dignity. The Mass-Care Coalition is now over 100 organizations.
www.masscare.org / 617-297-8011 / info@masscare.org