Next Wednesday June 8th, 9am at the State House, a coalition of civic groups calling itself ACT (for "Affordable Care Today") is encouraging folks to come to a public hearing on the Health Care Access and Affordability Act (or "HA3", as I like to call it), a bill that would provide health care to 80% of the currently 500,000 uninsured folks in MA. The hearing will also address Senate President Travaglini’s plan.
This is an issue that is going to require citizen leadership. The powers that be simply don’t want to rock the boat too much, because it’s a complicated issue with powerful interests involved. We’ve simply got to keep the focus on the human cost of the current way of doing things. Frankly, the hearing itself is not the story at the State House on Wednesday: We are the story. Not special interests, not politicians; just us, ordinary citizens, with our imperfect bodies, imperfect bank accounts, and very imperfect health care arrangements.
If you need to know more about the bill, you can read any of the .pdfs below. If you can only read one thing, I would suggest reading the "Fact Sheet" or GBIO’s handy comparison between the Governor’s plan, Travaglini’s, and HA3.
GBIO’s Proposal Comparison Sheet
HA3 FAQs sheet
HA3 Fact Sheet
HA3 section-by-section
HA3, the bill itself
I will be working "logistics" for the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization that day, so I’ll be around in the morning. Hope to see you there, and thanks for reading.
Thanks for the reminder. I will definitely try and make it! (As long as I DON’T have to be leaving Boston at 5pm – man, that sucked yesterday.)
Yeah – I don’t know what’s up with 93 North these days. From about 3:30 pm to about 6 pm it’s totally horrendous. And it didn’t used to be that way – it would be heavy, but at least it moved. Now it just stops dead. Anyone know why? Something weird going on at the 128 interchange or something?