22-05-2025
With the big, ugly bill, the rich get richer and everybody else pays
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Even after people at the bottom of the ladder get hosed, those tax cuts (plus big boosts in funding for defense and so-called border security) are projected to
Hey, it's all for a noble cause: Remaking the country into a GOP utopia, where the rich get more handouts, and the poor have only themselves to blame.
To sell this money grab, Republicans are using a tactic that has worked ever since
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'If you don't want to work, you're the one that decided you don't want health care,'
You tell 'em, Senator! Scott and his fellow-travelers deplore those who abuse the system. Never mind that most Medicare fraud happens on the provider side. Or that Scott himself once headed a hospital chain
States like ours have pretty good systems to catch all kinds of fraud, which,
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$20 billion budget for Medicaid, known here as MassHealth, in 2024.
Be that as it may, Republicans want to introduce Medicaid work requirements that will finally get the freeloaders off their butts. Let's take a closer look at these miscreants, shall we? Of the 2 million people who get MassHealth to cover their medical care,
Republicans are using a problem that barely exists to kick millions out of the system, and proposing a so-called solution that doesn't work anyway. In
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In addition to the work requirements, the giant bill being debated in Washington means Massachusetts would lose billions more in Medicaid funding in coming years – as punishment for
The thing is, the medical needs of those kicked off MassHealth won't go away. They'll just get worse, more deadly, and more expensive for everyone. They'll get dealt with in emergency rooms already at their breaking points. And they'll put the squeeze on struggling health centers, hospitals and, ultimately, state budgets.
'These are cuts that are going to impact the entire program, and have a ripple effect across the Massachusetts economy,' said Kate Symmonds, senior health law attorney at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute. 'It will reduce revenues for community health centers, hospitals, and medical providers, and it will destabilize our health industry.'
Guy Fish, CEO of Codman Square Health Center, has a good idea how much it will cost if Republicans get their way on Medicaid. His Dorchester health center serves about 26,000 patients each year, almost all of them
Fish said his MassHealth patients are often working multiple part time jobs with no benefits, and that even then, some have to be convinced to apply for the program.
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'The narrative couldn't be more wrong,' he said. 'These are hard working people, some who don't know how to access the system.'
Kicking them off MassHealth won't make them any healthier.
'They will still have medical needs, and if they can't see us, where are they going to go,' he said. 'The state will have to pick that up, or they are not going to be seen, so they are going to be sicker and end up in emergency rooms. You pay more later for not paying for coverage now.'
If Codman loses funding from MassHealth, that will mean staff cuts. Unemployment ripples out into families, and to local businesses, because fewer people have money to spend. The whole community will be worse off.
'There is a whole domino effect that happens here,' Fish said. 'And the tragedy is, it is not just in Massachusetts or blue states, but in red states too. There are community health centers in every single state… including deep red ones.'
Those states will be left holding the bag, pulling money from education and transportation and law enforcement to make up the shortfalls.
Ah yes, but by then, the billionaires' pockets will be even fatter.
Downright evil.
Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham can be reached at
