legislation at a commission meeting in May<\/a>, spoke before the council on Wednesday, explaining that the bill, if signed into law, would save the city an estimated $4 to $6 million annually in health care costs while also expanding access to health care to all Massachusetts residents.<\/p>\n\u201cA single-payer system is based on the premise that a healthy society promotes opportunities for the young, comfort and dignity for the elderly, and good health care for families that make up the workforce of our country. Local hospitals would stop closing and give even more care than they do now,\u201d Jablon said. \u201cThis is a patient-oriented system that would reduce health disparities since everyone is covered, even the homeless, and improve the quality of care. It would also strengthen the healing power of the doctor-patient relationship by giving the doctors the right to make decisions about medical care instead of insurance bureaucrats.\u201d<\/p>\n
If passed, the legislation seeks to establish the Massachusetts Healthcare Trust: a single payer of all health care costs to replace insurance companies. The trust would be financed using existing programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, as well as four new taxes \u2014 employer payroll, employee payroll, self-employed and unearned income \u2014 that would replace and are estimated to be much lower than current insurance premiums, co-pays, deductibles and out-of-pocket payments.<\/p>\n
Although the majority of councilors voted in support of the legislation as a non-partisan effort to save money on health care, Precinct 9 Councilor Derek Helie voiced his opposition to a single-payer system, arguing that it would lengthen hospital wait times and possibly lead to higher costs for employers.<\/p>\n
Helie added that he believes implementation of a single-payer system would leave the strength of the Massachusetts\u2019 health care industry at the mercy of the state economy and wouldn\u2019t facilitate innovation as well as a private system.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is going to charge a business 7.5% to 8% depending on employee count in payroll tax and then 2.5% to the employee. \u2026 My concern is we already have the millionaire tax in effect in Massachusetts. This would be a tax that might drive out more business,\u201d Helie said. \u201cWhen you have a single-payer health care system, [a downside] is longer wait times. You\u2019re also trusting the government to run the health care system, and no, I don\u2019t think the government\u2019s good at running anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other councilors, such as Precinct 6 Councilor Patricia Williams and Precinct 7 Councilor William \u201cWid\u201d Perry, voiced their support for the council\u2019s endorsement of the legislation under the belief that \u201chealth care is a human right.\u201d<\/p>\n
City Council Vice President John Garrett added that in some countries that have single-payer health care, such as the United Kingdom, wealthier residents can choose to pay for private health insurance if they wish. He said the country\u2019s health care quality is disproportionately low when considering the amount it pays for insurance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are a richer country [than the United Kingdom], but our wealth is far more unevenly distributed,\u201d Garrett said. \u201cHaving government-run programs and a more egalitarian country where people live longer and have better outcomes, to me, is absolutely the direction we should go in. This, to me, is not a a difficult vote. I\u2019m honestly kind of thrilled to have something that is so positive and agenda-focused to vote on.\u201d<\/p>\n
The legislation is currently under discussion in the state\u2019s\u00a0Joint Committee on Health Care Financing<\/a>. The committee is expected to report back on the bill on March 18.<\/p>\nCity Council voted 10-1 to sign a letter to the state Legislature supporting the single-payer health care proposal. Helie voted against the endorsement while At-Large City Councilor Michael Terounzo abstained from voting.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhat to Read Next<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GREENFIELD \u2014 City Council voted 10-1 with one abstention on Wednesday to sign a letter of support for…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":237862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[127515,127516,210,1141,1142,127517,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-237861","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-greenfield-city-council","9":"tag-greenfield-ma","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-health-care","12":"tag-healthcare","13":"tag-homecenterpiece1","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115228634235583844","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237861","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=237861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}