Jim Leary
 |  Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Consistent with the old maxim that all politics is local, it is also true that all policy is local. Whether on Capitol Hill or Beacon Hill, policies that lawmakers enact inevitably have repercussions — for good or bad — on communities such as Worcester.

Sadly, the local impacts of Congress’ enactment of President Trump’s so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” and of the White House’s pending proposal to slash National Institutes of Health funding by 40%, will be onerous.

A great deal has been reported on the patient impact of these policies. Appropriately so, considering that the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the $1 trillion cuts to health care programs in the “Beautiful Bill” will cause over 10 million people to lose health insurance coverage by 2034 and the near certainty that the administration’s proposed NIH cuts will impede development of new treatments for patients with critical health conditions.

Less obvious, but also important, are the potentially devastating impacts these policies will inflict on the Central Massachusetts economy. By targeting health care and scientific research, they will not only harm the largest employers and biggest drivers of the regional economy but will also have a ripple effect on sectors outside of health care or research.

The leaders of this region’s two largest employers, UMass Memorial Health and UMass Chan Medical School, have been outspoken about the dire consequences of massive federal cuts to their institutions. UMass Memorial expects to lose at least $100 million in Medicaid funding annually, and UMass Chan cites an expected $94 million shortfall in NIH grants in the upcoming fiscal year, on top of $42 million in grant disbursements already withheld by the Trump administration. Cuts of this magnitude will have a devastating impact on patients, employees and the public service missions of both institutions.

These cuts will also affect workers and businesses in sectors that work regularly with medical, research and education institutions. The construction industry is a case in point. Hospitals and research institutions rely upon highly skilled electricians, plumbers, HVAC technicians and other tradespeople to build, renovate and maintain complex facilities that adhere to the most stringent safety and health regulations. But as federal cuts cause some health services to be reduced and laboratories to close, construction and renovation projects will inevitably decline, impacting the livelihoods of tradespeople and construction firms. The same dynamic will replicate across other industries that provide supportive services to medical and research institutions, whether it be finance, legal, suppliers or countless others whose businesses rely, at least in part, on such work.

Hard data back up this dynamic. In its 2025 annual analysis on the economic impact of NIH research, United for Medical Research reports that each $1 of NIH funding results in $2.56 of economic activity. So, when the federal government cuts research grants to Worcester research universities by an aggregate of tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, the secondary impact will hit businesses and workers well beyond the campuses of UMass Chan or WPI. Similar ripple effects will reverberate across the local economy when hospitals’ finances are torpedoed by massive cuts to Medicaid and Medicare and rising volumes of uninsured patients.

It is impossible to find a silver lining in policies that wreak such havoc on the engines of our local economy, and that feeling is exacerbated by the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate that the “Beautiful Bill” will also drive up the national deficit by $3.4 trillion. Nonetheless, it is imperative not to give up. Everyone impacted — patients, workers, businesses and institutional leaders — must speak up and remain engaged so future Congresses prioritize reversing these irrational policies.

Jim Leary is an attorney and former state legislator from Worcester.