Massachusetts
Confronting Trump’s second term, Healey says she asks, ‘How the hell did we get here?’ – The Boston Globe
Since returning to the White House, the Republican Trump has targeted Democratic governors, including Janet Mills of Maine. His threats to withhold federal funding from states demonstrate the potential stakes Democratic leaders face if they run afoul of Trump.
Healey described witnessing Trump’s attack last month on Mills over his executive order banning transgender athletes from competing in women’s and girl’s sports.
Addressing Mills at a White House event, Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from Maine unless the state abides by the order. Mills responded that Maine would follow state and federal laws, which Healey called the “right answer.”
“What I saw as so upsetting in that exchange was when he looked at her, and I was sitting at the table, and he leered at her, and he said, ‘We are the federal law,’” Healey told the Times. “I heard somebody who thinks he’s king.”
A day after the confrontation with Mills, the Trump administration’s “border czar” accused Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox of failing to target criminals who are in the country illegally. Tom Homan vowed to visit the city and to bring “hell with me.”
Healey told the Times she doesn’t know what Homan was talking about, but said she would meet with him if he visits Boston.
Healey said Homan’s threat to bring “hell” to Boston is counterproductive.
“You should come here with support and resources, to help us address any public-safety issues we’re experiencing,” she said. “It sounds like I might need to explain a few things to him as somebody who investigated and prosecuted crimes.”
Homan’s remarks appear to reference a television interview in which Cox discussed a 2017 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling that prohibits state and local law enforcement officers from detaining people solely on the basis of a civil immigration detainer.
Garcia-Navarro asked Healey about how her administration has handled an influx of migrants, citing a poll from University of Masschusetts-Amherst/WCVB in which a majority of respondents expressed dissatisfaction with her performance.
Healey said she pushed to reshape the state’s emergency shelter system, the only statewide program in the nation that mandates shelter for homeless families. The effort is expected to cost taxpayers more than $1 billion this fiscal year.
On Friday, Healey signed a bill that reduces the amount of time families can stay in the system and caps the number of families allowed in
The federal government must reform the nation’s immigration system, Healey said, and she described telling former president Joe Biden to “be more active on the border.”
“I knew that as an attorney general, and as a former prosecutor, that there were things that could have been done, and I wish that he had done that,” Healey said.
Healey was the first Democratic governor to publicly urge Biden to reconsider running for re-election after his poor debate performance last June.
She said she empathizes with Democratic voters who blame the party for allowing Trump to recapture the White House, but rejects placing all the responsibility on Biden and his vice president, Kamala Harris, who was defeated in November.
Ultimately, the economy “ended up doing Biden and Kamala Harris in,” she told the Times.
“There are things that could have happened that should have happened that didn’t happen, and here we are,” Healey said. “It’s upsetting to be here having this conversation with you at this moment. And I, too, ask, how the hell did we get here?”
Healey criticized Trump for executive orders aimed at dismantling initiatives for diversity, equity, and inclusion, saying the policies shouldn’t be abandoned. She also expressed concern about the authority Trump has given billionaire Elon Musk to reshape the federal government.
“It’s interesting at a time when the co-president, Elon Musk, is giving us Hitler salutes, and espousing anti-Semitic things, I just find it ironic that we’re going to have this debate over D.E.I. and whether it’s effective,” she told the Times.
Healey, the first woman and openly-gay governor in Massachusetts, said she worries about potential challenges to the Supreme Court case that made gay marriage legal nationwide. As a civil rights lawyer with the state attorney general’s office, Healey successfully challenged the Defense of Marriage Act.
She also told the Times she worries that Trump might seek a third presidential term.
“You asked me that question, and my legit, genuine answer is, yeah, I’m worried about that,” Healey said.
Laura Crimaldi can be reached at laura.crimaldi@globe.com. Follow her @lauracrimaldi.
Massachusetts
Police to address Princeton death during child sexual abuse material investigation
Authorities will speak Friday after a death occurred while police were serving a search warrant for child sexual abuse material in Princeton, Massachusetts.
The subject of the search warrant “was a person of trust in communities in Worcester and Middlesex Counties,” Massachusetts State Police said.
Authorities said little about the case ahead of the press conference, which will begin at 6 p.m. and be streamed in the player above.
State police will be hosting the conference, which will include Princeton Police Chief Paul Patricia, Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. and Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan.
Check back for more as this story develops.
Massachusetts
Mass. unveils $250 million in subsidies to protect residents from premium hikes – The Boston Globe
Audrey Morse Gasteier, executive director of the Massachusetts Health Connector, said the financial bulwark that benefited 270,000 residents is “part of the reason that we’re hanging in there in terms of enrollment and keeping people covered.”
But Thursday’s announcement won’t translate into any additional help.
Healey’s news conference coincided with the beginning of an election year in which three Republicans are vying for her job and voters are expected to be particularly focused on the state’s high cost of living. One survey last year found Massachusetts had the second highest cost of living in the country. People who saw their insurance premiums increase this year said it was one pricey bill amid an onslaught of growing expenses.
“I can’t believe how much it is when we go to the grocery store. Our electricity has gone up,“ said Judith O’Gara, whose family was hit with a $400 increase a month in insurance premiums for their ACA plan in January. ”We were just bracing ourselves to try to stretch the paycheck further.”
O’Gara, of Millis, is a part-time editor at community newspapers, and her husband is a self-employed computer animator and mural artist. She has added hours at work, she said, but it still wasn’t enough to qualify for health coverage through her employer, leaving the couple to buy insurance through the connector.
Healey also used the news conference to weigh in on a high-profile effort in Congress to revive the federal subsidies. Also on Thursday, the US House, with help from 17 Republican defectors facing competitive reelection races, passed a bill that would extend the subsidies for another three years. A small group of senators is considering proposing their own extension of the subsidies.
“We need to see people in Congress step up and take action and fight the president on this and get him to focus on the domestic agenda and how to make life more affordable for people,” Healey said.
The governor said she didn’t announce the influx of funds earlier because she had hoped Congress would act before the end of 2025.
“We gave up until the deadline to see if they take action,” she said.
ACA open enrollment extends through Jan. 23.
The infusion of funds from the Commonwealth Care Trust Fund brings the state’s total commitment to the insurance marketplace to $600 million, which Healey said is the largest support from any state in the country.
Federally subsidized insurance policies were first made available to people making less than 400 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $128,600 for a family of four, in 2009 under President Barack Obama’s ACA, also known as Obamacare. In 2021, Congress made those subsidies more generous for many recipients and extended them to people earning up to 500 percent of the federal poverty level. The expanded tax credits doubled participation in the ACA exchanges over the past four years, and by last year 337,000 people in Massachusetts received subsidized insurance through ConnectorCare.
The increases were slated to expire after four years, and without congressional action to preserve them, premiums reverted to pre-2021 levels for this year. People earning more than 400 percent of the poverty level became ineligible to receive subsidized insurance. State officials have estimated roughly 300,000 people could become uninsured statewide over the next decade, in part due to the expiration of the tax credits.
Democrats staged a 43-day shutdown last fall, the longest in US history, in an unsuccessful effort to preserve the expanded subsidies.
The Commonwealth Care Trust Fund predates the 2021 coverage expansion, said Doug Howgate, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a nonprofit budget watchdog, and was established to support ConnectorCare programs. Massachusetts has long had a robust public insurance program, and the 2021 expansion essentially allowed the state to shift the cost of subsidies it had been paying to the federal government. Tapping the trust fund now essentially returns Massachusetts to the support levels it provided prior to 2021, Howgate said.
Regardless of the timing of Healey’s announcement, it is a reality that Massachusetts has a uniquely robust commitment to health insurance access, Howgate said.
“I do think that the idea that the state is able to offset some of those impacts is an important message to get out there,” he said. “This is real money.”
According to Healey’s office, a 45-year-old couple with two kids making $75,000 in Fall River previously paid $166 per month for the lowest-cost coverage. Without state action, their premium would have more than doubled. But with the infusion from the trust fund, they will pay $206 per month.
There’s only so much the state can do to mitigate the impacts of the expired subsidies, though. Because Congress didn’t extend them, people between 400 and 500 percent of the federal poverty level simply are ineligible to sign up for subsidized policies through the ACA marketplace. There are roughly 27,000 people statewide who cannot benefit from the state’s effort to compensate for the lost federal money, and those people are among those facing the biggest new insurance expenses.
Christa, 56, a hair dresser, and her husband, Gary, 69, a truck driver, earn less than $105,750 annually combined, just shy of 500 percent of the poverty level. The couple, who asked not to be named to protect their privacy, went from paying $282-a-month for Christa’s insurance with no deductible, to a private plan costing $725 a month with a $2000 deductible.
Gary, who is enrolled in Medicare, is still counting on Congress for a reprieve.
“I believe the Senate will be forced to do something, and we’re hoping,” he said.
Jason Laughlin can be reached at jason.laughlin@globe.com. Follow him @jasmlaughlin.
Massachusetts
Healey shares plan to limit health insurance cost increases for Massachusetts residents
Gov. Maura Healey said Thursday that the state is spending an additional $250 million to limit premium increases for residents who have insurance through the Massachusetts Health Connector.
After Congress let Affordable Care Act tax credits expire at the end of last year, more than 300,000 people in Massachusetts have been facing a potentially steep increase in their health care bills.
The governor’s office said those enrolled in ConnectorCare who make below 400% of the of the federal poverty level, which is $62,600 for an individual or $128,600 for a family of four, will see “little to no premium increases.”
Under the plan, Healey’s office said a 45-year-old couple with two kids in Fall River will see their monthly health insurance costs rise from $166 to $206. Without the new funding, the governor says they would be paying $452 a month.
“While President Trump continues to increase health care costs, we are taking the strongest action in the nation to address them and keep costs as low as possible for families,” Healey said in a statement. “Despite this increased state investment, far too many people will still see their premiums increase because of the White House.”
The U.S. House of Representatives is set to approve a three-year extension of the health care tax credits. While it appears unlikely to pass the Senate, senators have talked about a compromise plan that could include a two-year extension with added reforms. President Trump hasn’t offered a specific health care plan, but said subsidies going to insurance companies should “go to the people” instead.
The $250 million is coming from the Commonwealth Care Trust Fund, which gets its money from employer medical assistance contributions and financial penalties from residents who violate the state’s health care insurance mandate.
Massachusetts residents can sign up for health insurance coverage or switch their Health Connector plans until Jan. 23 if they want to be covered by Feb. 1.
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