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Massachusetts lawmakers move to preserve bodily autonomy, ban employer coercion

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Massachusetts lawmakers move to preserve bodily autonomy, ban employer coercion


A Massachusetts state lawmaker, forced to retire early from the Air Force Reserve after deciding against the COVID-19 vaccine, is behind a push to preserve bodily autonomy and ban employers from coercing their employees with mandates.

State Rep. Justin Thurber and Sen. Patrick O’Connor are teaming up on legislation they say affirms that individuals have the fundamental right to make their own health decisions without government influence.

Thurber has said he wanted to serve 33 years in the Air Force Reserve, but the vaccine mandate during the pandemic robbed him of achieving that goal. He retired as a chief master sergeant in his 29th year of service.

The first-term Republican from the South Coast is sharing his story as he advocates to prohibit employers from requiring health-related interventions, such as vaccinations, mask-wearing, or genetic procedures, as a condition for employment.

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“One idea I could never get out of my head was that for 29 years, I upheld my oath of enlistment and fought to defend Americans for the freedoms we enjoy, only to see those freedoms eroded,” Thurber said during a legislative hearing last Tuesday.

The lawmaker highlighted how, less than a month after he left the Air Force Reserve, his wife, Kerri, lost her job as a teacher in Rhode Island for not complying with the COVID-19 vaccine mandate after the school district denied her religious exemption request.

A year later, a Rhode Island Superior Court judge ruled in favor of Thurber’s wife and two other teachers also fired for refusing to take the vaccine, finding the district had violated an Open Meeting Act law over their issuance of the mandate.

The school committee reached a settlement with the teachers in 2023, issuing each of them $33,333 payments and back pay of over $50,000, according to Rhode Island news reports at the time.

Similar situations have played out in Massachusetts in the aftermath of the pandemic.

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In one instance, an independent arbitrator ruled in August 2023 that the Massachusetts State Police did not have the right to claim it couldn’t accommodate the request of eight troopers who sought religious exemptions to the vaccine mandate because of “undue hardship.”

“Courts are determining that bodily autonomy and living a life free of coercion is a fundamental right,” Thurber told the Joint Committee on the Judiciary. “However, thousands of Massachusetts residents … who are forced to choose between their conscience and their careers are still living with the consequences of this injustice.”

The proposed bill pending on Beacon Hill carries limited exceptions for specific health-related interventions, including drug or alcohol testing, any medical testing required for any vehicular license, or admission to a general or psychiatric hospital for evaluation and treatment.

If someone’s rights under the bill are violated, they can seek damages and legal fees, the legislation outlines.

“This bill is not about whether or not to get vaccinated,” O’Connor, a South Shore Republican, said during the legislative hearing last week. “This is about whether or not an employer should have the ability to fire someone based on what is ultimately a personal medical decision.”

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In a Democratic-controlled Legislature, the bill could be short-lived. The push comes as some lawmakers are again looking to eliminate religious exemptions for immunizations required in public, private and charter K-12 schools across the Bay State.

Under the proposals, schools must submit data annually to the state Department of Public Health about how many students are vaccinated and how many received a medical exemption, with that information then made publicly available.

The Massachusetts Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics is connecting its support of those bills to how it says the “COVID-19 pandemic and the recent measles outbreaks have revealed how devastating a disease outbreak can be in our communities.”

“Scientific evidence from the fights against polio, measles, and COVID-19 have demonstrated that vaccines are among the most effective and safest means to prevent individual illness and protect public health,” the chapter wrote in a letter to lawmakers.

Boston health officials announced late Friday that a traveler with a confirmed case of measles visited the city from June 7 – 8, making stops at the Westin Boston Seaport District Hotel, the Museum of Fine Arts and Logan Airport before flying on JetBlue Flight 639 to Miami.

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In Suffolk County, 94% of children have been fully vaccinated against measles, according to DPH data.

Bay State families have grown resistant to vaccine mandates over the years.

The Massachusetts Family Institute highlighted in a summary of a legislative hearing held earlier this month that 59 of 70 people had testified in opposition to the bills that look to increase vaccination requirements and reporting standards.

Nationally, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. dismissed all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, with the move “necessary to reestablish public confidence in vaccine science.”

State DPH Commissioner Robbie Goldstein called the news “troubling.”

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“It amends a science-based process that has informed vaccine recommendations and promoted vaccine access for decades,” he said. “The future of federal vaccine policy is unclear.”

Companies that didn’t mandate COVID-19 vaccines still proved to be tough on employees who decided against receiving the injection.

Saugus resident Anne Marie Cromwick, who didn’t get vaccinated, said the small pharmaceutical research company she worked for during the pandemic “implemented policies that essentially relegated me as a second-class citizen.”

Cromwick told the Joint Committee on Judiciary that the company restricted her to eating lunch at her desk and not in a cafeteria with her colleagues. If she attended a large gathering, she said she had to work from home for 10 days after the event.

“The role of the government is to provide the best information and guidance while allowing for robust debate,” Cromwick said, “and the idea that the science is settled is absurd.”

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“What is most important in a free society is to protect the rights of citizens,” she added, “not to mandate a one-size-fits-all approach to public health.”

Herald wire services contributed to this report



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Police to address Princeton death during child sexual abuse material investigation

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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.

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Check back for more as this story develops.



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Mass. unveils $250 million in subsidies to protect residents from premium hikes – The Boston Globe

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Mass. unveils 0 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.”

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.





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Healey shares plan to limit health insurance cost increases for Massachusetts residents

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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.”

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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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