Jewish groups hail State House health care bill
By Ted Siefer
The Jewish Advocate
Interfaith community plays critical role in landmark victory to extend medical coverage
Boston area synagogues and the Jewish Community Relations Council are claiming victory after the passage last week of a landmark health care bill that will make Massachusetts the first state in the union to extend health coverage to nearly all of its residents.
"We think it's an incredible victory and testimony to the power of local community organizing," said JCRC Executive Director Nancy Kaufman. "The Jewish community had a significant role in this, as part of the GBIO [Greater Boston Interfaith Organization], and JCRC and many synagogues were active in this as well."
In one of the costliest lobbying battles in state history, involving insurers, business groups and healthcare providers, GBIO emerged as a key force, threatening at several legislative impasses to place the issue on the ballot if lawmakers failed to produce a bill offering wide-reaching, affordable coverage.
"The faith community played an absolutely vital part in this," said GBIO leader Rabbi Jonah Pesner of Temple Israel in Boston. "And we'll continue to play a role in holding legislator's feet to the fire to make sure the bill gets implemented."
Pesner and Kaufman joined dozens of other leaders of the GBIO, a coalition of 65 religious-based organizations, at the Roxbury Presbyterian Church last week to celebrate passage of the bill.
Kaufman stressed that comprehensive health coverage was both a moral imperative for the Jewish community as well as a practical concern.
"This impacts members of the Jewish community in all ways, not only legal immigrants, but young people who have recently graduated from college and have no insurance," she said. "The devil is in the details, but the essence of what we wanted is there."
While provisions of the bill are still being pored over, Jewish seniors and Russian immigrants are hopeful that the bill will widen coverage under MassHealth, the state's Medicaid program.
One key point of contention in the health care plan, which aims to cover 90 to 95 percent of the half million uninsured Massachusetts residents by July 2007, had been the question of how the cost burden would be distributed among businesses and individuals.
According to the plan, employers who do not cover full-time employers would pay a $295-assessment per employee, per year. Individuals would be required to have insurance or face tax penalties. Individual plans would be priced on a sliding scale and subsidized by the state. As of press time, Gov. Mitt Romney is expected to sign the bill, while vetoing the $295 employer assessment fee provision. The legislature could then override the veto.
