I read with interest the article about Massachusetts Medicare For All (“Single-payer healthcare gaining momentum,” Recorder, May 18). It is long overdue.
All residents of Massachusetts, as well as those who work in Massachusetts for more than 20 hours per week, will be covered. Baystate residents have been working to enact Massachusetts Medicare For All for more than two decades. As the article points out, the private insurance lobby is powerful in Massachusetts. And it has so far helped to prevent the House and Senate bills to pass it from advancing out of the Massachusetts Congressional Healthcare Finance Committee. But more and more residents are experiencing extremely high costs in private insurance premiums, deductibles, and copays as well as delays in care and denial due to the prior authorization model. And this model is becoming even more hazardous as private companies are using artificial intelligence to approve or disapprove authorization for care.
The article included statements by representatives of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans. Their claims about the “devastating… effect on the economy” and elimination of “meaningful healthcare choices” and “dramatic tax increases” are basically fear tactics. Yes, the financing would depend on a payroll tax. But strikingly, there would be no premiums, no copays, and no deductibles! Imagine the freedom and relief from stress that this would provide!
Employees currently covered by employer insurance pay premiums through payroll deductions. Those premiums will be eliminated and replaced by a payroll tax. The money will go to the Mass Medicare Trust rather than to private insurers. Patients won’t have to wait for prior authorizations for care or prescriptions. January will no longer be a month to dread healthcare wise because there will be no deductibles. And again, there will be no copays for provider visits or prescriptions. There will be no in network and out of network providers; people will be able to choose their providers more easily. A single-payer plan will also provide a massive negotiating advantage with healthcare and pharmaceutical providers.
Another very attractive benefit is that residents will no longer be tied to their employer because they need the health insurance benefits. This is a progressive, freeing aspect. People can go back to school, more easily work for themselves, and be able to leave a job when it suits them. Providing healthcare for everyone will have a positive boost to the economy of the state, and Massachusetts will be a state people will want to live in.
In our present system, private insurance companies are using AI to make prior authorizations, with United Healthcare being notorious with its delaying and denying of care. It is well documented that people are suffering and dying because of these policies. In 2026, ACA health insurance recipients no longer have tax subsidies. Premiums, copays, and deductibles have skyrocketed. Towns all over Massachusetts are facing double-digit percentage yearly increases in healthcare costs for their employees. Some have been folded into GIC, causing strain in that system, which is composed of private insurance companies with their goals of maximizing profits.
Massachusetts is overdue in providing single-payer healthcare. I urge everyone to visit MassCARE.org to find more details including a financial analysis showing viability. And to visit the state’s Healthcare Finance Committee website to view testimony. It’s time that our payments into the healthcare system are not reduced by the profits that are the driving force of private insurance. We need Massachusetts Medicare For All now!
Judy Franklin lives in Amherst.