Gov renews pitch for health changes
Bid to reduce Medicaid rolls faces blowback
Gov. Charlie Baker is renewing a controversial proposal to move 140,000 lowincome people off the state’s Medicaid rolls and onto other health care plans as part of his $40.9 billion spending plan, re-igniting a debate over how best to reform the state’s bulging health care budget.
The proposal represents just a slice of Baker’s priorities in his budget proposal, which includes no new broad-based tax hikes or the type of tax reforms other states are weighing in the wake of the federal tax law President Trump signed last month.
The plan was a key cog of Baker’s MassHealth package last year, but was twice rejected by lawmakers and assailed by advocates, who said it would force low-income families to pay more out of pocket for health care.
Baker said he tried to address the concerns, arguing the low-income adults — such as a one-person household making $16,643 a year — would pay the same copays and premiums as they did on MassHealth under the renewed proposal.
In turn, the administration could tap $120 million more in federal aid with the change. Baker aides estimated that keeping the group on MassHealth would cost about $270 million.
“We believe we basically can give people the same benefit plan they have now,” Baker said.
But it was already meeting resistance. In a statement, state Sen. Karen Spilka, the Senate’s budget chief, said she’s “not aware of new circumstances” that would convince the Senate to support it.
“As I expressed the past two times Gov. Baker proposed this change, we must find ways to address the growing cost of care in the state without compromising access to high quality, affordable health care ... especially for our most vulnerable residents,” Spilka said.
A spokeswoman for Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez, the House’s budget chief, said he was still reviewing Baker’s overall plan. Both the Senate and House will release their own budget proposals in the coming months ahead of the new fiscal year, which starts July 1.
Baker’s budget also forgoes any of the so-called tax workarounds that other states, including California and New York, have considered after the new federal tax law capped state and local tax deductions at $10,000.
Earlier this month, Speaker of the House Robert A. DeLeo said lawmakers were “exploring” ways to counteract the new law and would hold a hearing this week.
“To be honest with you, so far most of the stuff I’ve seen people propose (in other states) I think will be extremely hard to not only implement, but I think in many cases will have trouble withstanding a legal challenge,” Baker said.
Baker also re-upped a proposal to cap sick leave at 1,000 hours for executive branch employees, as well as for higher education officials — many of whom have scored controversial, six-figure payouts upon retirement thanks to a stockpile of unused sick time.
But Baker’s legislation, and others, have faced resistance from unions, who said reforms should be made at the collective bargaining table.