Health
ALL HEALTH REPORTS
The State of FY2022 HWM Budget & Where We Go From Here
Interested in learning more about how the Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 House Ways and Means (HWM) budget proposal and federal aid impacts our state budget? Learn more in the presentation from our KIDS COUNT Director, Nancy Wagman, and Senior Policy Analyst, Monique Ching, for a recent presentation to the Massachusetts Public Health Association’s Health Equity Task Force.
Read More →
Testimony before the Health Equity Task Force on the importance of work and family mobility for all, regardless of immigrant status
Testimony by Monique Ching, Senior Policy Analyst at the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, for the Health Equity Task Force public hearing on February 8, 2021. Members of the Health Equity Task Force, thank you for the opportunity to speak today about An Act Relative to Work and Family Mobility During and Subsequent to the COVID-19 Emergency (HD.448/SD.273). My name is Monique Ching and I am a Senior Policy Analyst at the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, a nonpartisan research organization that focuses on state fiscal and economic policy. Imagine, for a moment, that you do not have a driver’s ...
Read More →
Bringing in the Relief Part II: The Census Counts for Equity
More than $3.3 billion in CARES Act funding comes to our Massachusetts communities based on population estimates from the census. Learn how the Commonwealth can get its fair share of power and money through a complete, accurate 2020 Census count in our latest report.
Read More →
Tens of thousands of undocumented, essential workers at risk of lost jobs, lost pay, exposure to COVID-19
Immigrants without status form the backbone of Massachusetts — producing our food, tending to our loved ones, and stocking our supermarkets. But the COVID-19 pandemic and widespread business closures mean many of these undocumented workers have found themselves at risk of losing their jobs, losing income, or being exposed to the virus.
Read More →
Bringing in the Relief Part I: Federal Fiscal Relief for our State Budget is Critical for a Strong, Just Recovery
For more on federal fiscal relief, read That’s A Relief Part I: Federal Fiscal Relief to Massachusetts in Recently-Passed Legislation and That’s A Relief Part II: Federal Fiscal Relief for Community Development in the CARES Act. The Massachusetts state budget is the single piece of legislation each year that defines the state’s vision, values, and plan for the coming fiscal year. Over the course of the past two months, a public health emergency has quickly turned also into an economic emergency. And now, the scope of the state fiscal crisis that has come from this has only started to become clear. Already, hundreds ...
Read More →
Statement on Reopening the Commonwealth
Read the full statement by Marie-Frances Rivera, president of the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center (MassBudget), in response to the Governor's Reopening Massachusetts plan amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read More →
Testimony to the Economic Roundtable: We must ensure collective well-being and economic security in the Commonwealth
Read the full testimony from our President, Marie-Frances Rivera, for the Massachusetts Legislature's April Virtual Economic Roundtable, originally scheduled for April 7, 2020.
Read More →
Spotlight on Equity: Testing and Treatment for Everyone, Regardless of Income, Health Insurance Coverage, or Immigration Status
Photo courtesy of Creative Commons. The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic exposes disparities in our health care system. It also highlights how interconnected we are to each other. Now, more than ever, as we work to flatten the curve of this epidemic, we need to consider the health and wellbeing of our neighbors who may feel unsafe or unsure about accessing medical care. This includes people who may see care as unaffordable, fear deportation, and those experiencing homelessness. Through MassHealth, our state’s Medicaid program, Massachusetts provides health insurance to nearly 1.8 million people, including about half the state’s children. In an effort to provide a ...
Read More →
How Should Mass. Respond to the COVID-19 Crisis?
We Must Provide Robust Economic Relief and Recovery for Vulnerable Populations and Children in Massachusetts Policy is the lever that we can pull to bring collective well-being and economic security to the Commonwealth. We are in an unprecedented moment, one which is bringing our interconnectedness into stark focus. A moment in which our public goods are being put to the ultimate test. A moment which is asking each of us to answer the following questions: How do we best take care of one another? And how do we ensure that no one is left behind? Government exists for this very moment. It is imperative ...
Read More →
What is the Actual State Cost of MassHealth in 2019?
Every month, the MassHealth program (Massachusetts' Medicaid program) provides health insurance for more than 1.8 million residents of the Commonwealth: children in low-income households; low-wage workers; elders in nursing homes; people with disabilities; and others with very low incomes who cannot afford insurance. This is more than one-quarter of the Commonwealth's population, including close to half the state's children. Not surprisingly, such a comprehensive program represents a large share of the state's budget. But how much?
Read More →
Analyzing the Governor’s Budget for FY 2020
The Governor’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 budget proposal provides modest increases in funding for public education, human services, and several other important investments. This new funding does not, in many cases, reverse deep cuts imposed across the state budget after the tax cuts of the late 1990s and early 2000s — despite a decade of expansion in the economy. Lost revenue from tax cuts has limited the Commonwealth’s ability to adequately fund education, infrastructure, and other building blocks of healthy communities and a strong economy.
Read More →
Five Things to Look for in the FY 2020 Budget
Anyone who has set foot in a public school, driven on a road, or gone to a public park has been touched by the state budget. What we fund in our state budget reflects what we deem important. None of these essential services would be possible without the revenue to pay for it. Further, it is important to consider whether the state is raising revenue fairly. As the Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 budget debates kick off this week, here are five questions to consider.
Read More →
