{"id":203747,"date":"2025-09-06T01:30:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T01:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/203747\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T01:30:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T01:30:15","slug":"the-download-september-5-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/203747\/","title":{"rendered":"The Download September 5, 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

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New from CommonWealth Beacon<\/p>\n

A CRAP DEAL<\/strong>: Despite major progress, more than 40 combined sewer overflow sites along the Charles, Mystic, Alewife Brook, and Boston Harbor persist \u2013 discharging wastewater into rivers \u2013 partly because addressing them comes with more complicated engineering challenges and therefore higher costs. Bhaamati Borkhetaria digs into the problem<\/a>, which is likely to worsen in the coming decades without action.\u00a0<\/p>\n

SHOT IN THE ARM<\/strong>: Gov. Maura Healey on Thursday announced state measures<\/a> designed to break ties with federal immunization policies, ensure the availability of COVID-19 booster shots at retail pharmacies, mandate insurance coverage of vaccines and establish a regional public health collaborative. Alison Kuznitz<\/a> of the State House News Service has more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

September 5, 2025<\/p>\n

By Jennifer Smith<\/strong><\/p>\n

From the center of downtown Boston, getting to a hospital or health center can be as straightforward as walking a few blocks in any direction. Within 30 minutes of drive time from Tufts Medical Center, there are 23 other acute care hospitals, according to state data.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In more far-flung regions of the state, a long drive or a patchwork of transit modes can stand between someone in need of health care and the place best able to provide it. Within 30 minutes of Berkshire Medical Center, the midsized nonprofit community hospital in Pittsfield across the commonwealth from Boston, there are no other acute care hospitals. Same for Cape Cod Hospital.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

While most health care analyses rank Massachusetts at the pinnacle of state health system performance \u2013 consistently sitting among the states with the best health care coverage and access, highest childhood vaccination rates, highest health insurance coverage, lowest infant mortality, and fewest premature avoidable deaths \u2013 geographic barriers persist. \u00a0<\/p>\n

And the looming promise of Medicaid cuts \u2013 plus an already overburdened system in regions like southeastern Massachusetts, where staffing shortages and higher rates of uninsurance are exacerbating health care costs \u2013 casts a pall over the comparatively sunny overall health stats.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that patients face many barriers to accessing care, and geographic distance is one of those barriers,\u201d said Amie Shei, president and CEO of the Worcester-based Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts. \u201cIt\u2019s not simply the number of miles from point A to point B along a straight line, it\u2019s the particular options this person has access to.\u201d (Shei is on the board of MassINC, CommonWealth Beacon\u2019s publisher.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

The state has several ways to measure and identify geographically vulnerable medial areas. One measure tracked by the Department of Public Health is health workforces shortages<\/a>, which is often a measure of geographic vulnerability because people in areas with fewer doctors and health resources have fewer care options within a reasonable distance. Five Massachusetts regions are federally designated as geographic areas with a shortage of providers: Dukes County, a combined stretch of Hampden and Hampshire counties, Nantucket County, the North Quabbin region of Franklin and Worcester counties, and the Southern Berkshires.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Similarly, the state has 46 \u201cmedically underserved areas\u201d \u2013 geographic areas with a lack of access to primary care services \u2013 almost all of which have held the designation for around three decades and are scattered across the state from Berkshire to Dukes counties in rural and urban centers. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Travel and geography alone are not the main driver of access issues, but in a cost- and staff-strained health care environment, it\u2019s a part of \u201call of the above\u201d calculation that explains why Massachusetts residents sometimes go without care.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even if the direct financial hurdle to medical care can be cleared, someone may need to have family or friends who can give them a ride, or have public transit that\u2019s reliable and can get the person near enough to their care facility in time, or secure child care while half a day is spent traveling to and from appointments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of this takes mental energy,\u201d noted Shei. \u201cIt takes access to technology and being able to navigate a complex system. The more barriers you layer on, the more likely it is that someone may delay or forego care.\u201d<\/p>\n

More from CommonWealth Beacon<\/p>\n

OPINION<\/strong>: Kendra Winner\u2019s son Aidan suffered multiple brain injuries during a car accident. After watching Aiden go through 10 surgeries and almost 80 days in intensive care, Kendra faced a second fight for his health<\/a> with the insurance company to get the long-term care her son needs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After ruling on consumer protection violations, BlueHub digs in its heels<\/a><\/p>\n

This week on the Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith talks with Elyse Cherry, CEO of BlueHub Capital, to discuss the recent court decision that BlueHub violated consumer protection statutes around lending. Where does the case go next, and why did lawmakers push for new rules tailored to BlueHub\u2019s controversial lending practices?<\/p>\n

What We\u2019re Reading<\/p>\n

IMMIGRATION<\/strong>: The Trump administration has sued\u00a0Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and the Boston Police Department, saying the city\u2019s Trust Act policy that limits cooperation with immigration enforcement officials only to criminal matters violates federal law<\/a>. (WBUR)\u00a0<\/p>\n

ENERGY<\/strong>: During a hearing on a multi-state lawsuit against President Donald Trump\u2019s wind memorandum that has frozen offshore wind permitting for the last eight months, a Massachusetts judge again expressed some skepticism<\/a> about the effect of ruling against the administration when it is so clearly opposed to the offshore wind industry. (New Bedford Light)\u00a0<\/p>\n

VOTING<\/strong>: Advocates are pushing<\/a> for same-day voter registration among a host of bills that aim to expand voting access across the state. Twenty-two states and Washington, D.C., now allow for same-day voter registration, which proponents say increases voter participation, particularly among Black and brown communities, and cuts down on the use of provisional ballots. (MassLive \u2013 paywall)\u00a0<\/p>\n

EDUCATION<\/strong>: Harvard faculty members are celebrating<\/a> a ruling this week from Judge Allison Burroughs, who ruled the administration tried to strong-arm Harvard by dictating admissions, hiring, and disciplinary practices. The ruling reversed\u00a0billions in research cuts to the university. (GBH News)\u00a0<\/p>\n

SOCIAL MEDIA<\/strong>: The town of Brookline and its public schools recently joined<\/a> more than 100 other municipalities and districts in suing social media companies, alleging that their platforms are designed to addict young users and have harmed their health. (Brookline News)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Published by\u00a0MassINC<\/a><\/p>\n

CommonWealth Beacon
11 Beacon Street, Suite 500
Boston, MA 02108
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\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New from CommonWealth Beacon A CRAP DEAL: Despite major progress, more than 40 combined sewer overflow sites along…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":203748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[210,1141,1142,4603,112420,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-203747","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-health-care","10":"tag-healthcare","11":"tag-newsletters","12":"tag-the-download","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115154768700145820","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}