Health Care For All Newsletter
October 2005
in this issue
Have You Signed Yet? 38,000+ Have ... Do
It Today!
Legislative Health Reform -- Boiling Point Nears
Budget Implementation: The S-Lowdown
Medicare Part D -- Protecting Seniors
The Russian Roulette of Hospital
Billing
Pool Regs Delayed and a New
Waiting List
Help Hold Drug Companies Accountable
HCFA's Helpline Works for You
Check Out HCFA's Daily Blog
Have You Signed Yet? 38,000+ Have ... Do
It Today!
The Massachusetts Affordable Care Today (MassACT!)
campaign is on the streets! Ten days into signature collection and we have more
than 38,000 collected. The initiative will:
• Expand MassHealth coverage to
low income working adults and children;
• Restore MassHealth benefits like
dental coverage and dentures;
• Provide sliding scale premium assistance to moderate
income families and help for small business;
• Make our health system fairer by eliminating the $160
million surcharge that funds the Free Care Pool (lowering premiums), and create
an affordable assessment on firms that don't to cover workers;
• Make that the state pay MassHealth
providers fair costs;
• Raise the cigarette tax and discourage teens from starting
to smoke.
MassACT needs your help to gather
100,000 signatures to put this plan on the ballot in November '06. Just a few
hours this weekend would make a big difference.
Here's how to help:
1. Minimal: Download the petition form, fact sheet and
instructions at www.massact.org.
Print out the official petition. Look at the simple instructions -- it has to
be done right. Sign the petition, get other voters in your household to sign,
and mail it in. The address is on the petition. That would be a big help.
2. Moderate support: Download and print out the petition,
and make copies. Take them to your meetings, your workplace, your neighbors,
your parties in the next 2 weeks. Carry a bunch of petitions, because people
who live in different towns or cities must sign different sheets. Once you get
a decent number, send them in. They don't have to be full. The campaign can
mail or deliver to you a stack of official petitions if you can't print them
out.
3. Really help: Volunteer for the campaign. MassACT is organizing volunteers to get signatures at
street fairs, markets, T-stops and places with lots of traffic. You can join us
or we will set you up with signs, petitions, fact sheets, stickers and
instructions.
To volunteer, go to www. massact.org, or call Lisa Vinikoor at 617-275-2807.
By the way, check out today's great Boston Globe column by Eileen McNamara.
MassACT website: www.massact.org
• Join HCFA
• Donate to HCFA!
Legislative Health Reform -- Boiling Point Nears
Health reform is on the move in the State House. The House
and Senate hope to finalize their proposals this month. Right now legislators
are making key decisions about a health reform package and they need to hear
from you.
On Friday, Speaker Sal DiMasi will
address a Blue Cross Foundation summit at the JFK Library where he is expected
to preview the House health reform agenda.
Meanwhile, federal officials are warning the State that
reform must be done by mid-January to avoid potential loss of federal
dollars.
Click here to read the letter.
Please contact your legislators and tell them real reform
must be comprehensive. Real reform expands coverage, reduces costs, and is
fairly funded. Click here to identify your legislators and send an
email message.
For more information on our comprehensive health reform
legislation and the ACT! campaign, click below. For links to press coverage of
the health reform debate, click here
Budget Implementation: The S-Lowdown
Although HCFA won important provisions in this year's 06
state budget, MassHealth has not implemented several
of these legislative mandates.
Dental and Smoking Cessation Benefits: The FY06 budget
restores dental coverage and smoking cessation benefits for pregnant women and
mothers with kids under 3. MassHealth officials have
convened workgroups to examine implementation, but no decisions have been made.
Once decisions are made, the state must amend our federal Medicaid plan, and
set up the systems to provide coverage.
For now, pregnant women and new moms can't get the benefits
they were promised in the budget. MassHealth will not
provide a timetable for implementing the coverage required by the budget.
CMSP Premiums Rollback: The 06 budget eliminated premiums
for children in families under 200% of poverty in the Children's Medical
Security Plan. Yet MassHealth continues to charge
premiums for these kids, and continues to drop kids from the program for
failure to pay premiums under the old schedule. MassHealth
does not expect to implement the new premium schedule until December.
Meanwhile, legislators have expressed outrage at the
imminent dropping of coverage of kids from CMSP due to the transition of the
program from DPH to the MassHealth. The Boston Globe
reports that more than 1000 kids may lose coverage due to "bureaucratic
confusion." The Children's Health Access Coalition is mobilizing on these
issues. To get involved, contact Mandi Janis at
617-275-2939, janis@hcfama.org
Children's Health Access Coalition
Medicare Part D -- Protecting Seniors
While some in
The Russian Roulette of Hospital
Billing
A new HCFA report reveals wide variation in the treatment of
low and moderate income patients across hospitals. The report: The Russian
Roulette of Hospital Billing: A Review of 13 Hospitals’ Billing and Collection
Practices, revealed the results of HCFA’s study of 13
HCFA released the report in support of House Bills 2687 and
2752, which address the often excessive cost of care for patients lacking
health insurance. The report highlights stark inconsistencies across hospitals’
billing and collection policies. HCFA found that many key aspects of billing
and collection are currently not regulated by the state, leaving hospitals
without guidance and consumers without protection.
As a result of the study, HCFA urged lawmakers to expand on
pending legislation to establish clear, consistent and equitable hospital
billing and collection regulations. Click below to view the report.
Hospital Billing Report
Pool Regs Delayed and a New
Waiting List
In a supplemental budget signed by the Governor last month,
the Legislature ordered a freeze of new Free Care Pool regs
until
Meanwhile, more than uninsured 7861 persons eligible to be
enrolled in MassHealth Essential languish on a
waiting list. Gov. Romney says he wants to enroll all folks eligible for MassHealth but refuses to recommend lifting the cap.
Senate and House leaders have committed to raising the cap
by 10,000 in an upcoming supp budget. We hope they remember this needy group --
all of whom now have care paid by the Free Care Pool.
Proposed Pool Regulations
Help Hold Drug Companies Accountable
HCFA is still seeking plaintiffs to participate in a lawsuit
against major pharmaceutical companies challenging their pricing of
prescription drugs. We need plaintiffs who took certain physician administered
drugs in a doctor’s office or hospital.
We need plaintiffs who paid for at least some portion of the
medication’s costs out of their own pockets. The drugs we are concerned with
are used to treat cancer, arthritis, emphysema, asthma and hepatitis C. Click
here for more details.
Prescription Access Litigation Project
HCFA's Helpline Works
for You
Every day, HCFA gets calls and emails from consumers all
over
Check Out HCFA's Daily Blog
Nearly every day, there's a short, easily digestible nugget
of information, analysis, and insight at HCFA's Blog -- often information you'll find nowhere else.
Consumers Needed to Help Fight Drug Company Greed
Health Care For All is looking for
Medicare recipients who have been treated with certain drugs in a hospital or
doctor’s office to participate in a lawsuit against the major pharmaceutical
companies for overcharging for prescription drugs.
Contact Melissa Shannon for More Information
617-275-2911
Health Care For All
30 Winter Street