Mass. health-care advocates press Joint Committee to enact broad health equity package

A broad coalition of hospitals, community health centers, insurers, labor groups and advocacy organizations urged the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing on Wednesday to advance H1416/S901, an omnibus bill titled an act to advance health equity in Massachusetts.

The measure would create statewide benchmarks for equity, expand investment in community-based health providers and workforce development, and authorize a health-equity trust fund and targeted grants to neighborhoods identified as health equity zones. Proponents framed the legislation as a way to preserve recent gains from pandemic-era initiatives and to harden state systems against federal funding uncertainties.

"It has become increasingly more difficult for providers to care for patients and for patients to get access to the care they need when they need it," said Senator Cindy Friedman, Senate chair of the committee, in introductory remarks to the hearing. Friedman and House Chair Representative John Lawn emphasized that the proposals were meant to advance health equity "not as a slogan, but as a policy goal."

The Health Equity Compact and its supporters — including Michael Curry of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers and Rahsaan Hall of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts — told the committee the bill is built on three pillars:…