Health Announce: Sept. 8, 2025

09/09/25

Topics for this week’s Health Announce:

  1. Governor Healey acts to restore access to Covid vaccines
  2. New BlueCross BlueShield report on effect of Reconciliation Act provisions on health care access in Massachusetts
  3. Escalation in ICE actions in Massachusetts – resource reminder
  4. Upcoming HCWG

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Art and Resistance

Protest can take many forms: marches, signs, boycotts, and art. Art has a powerful legacy of activism and dissent. In California, ICE raids have provoked artists’ creation of posters, cartoons, and graphic art to document community harms and to bring people together. Even art created in another time to challenge forms of power and control in the media can gain new traction with current events. In and around Boston this month, you can see and experience resistance through art:

Be well,

Health Law Unit
Massachusetts Law Reform Institute

1. Governor Healey acts to restore access to Covid vaccines.

As covered in last week’s Health Announce, Covid vaccine access in Massachusetts was briefly threatened by new restrictions imposed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the lack of action from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). On September 4, 2025, Governor Healey announced three measures to protect access to Covid vaccines for all Massachusetts residents regardless of age.

  1. The Division of Insurance and the Department of Public Health (DPH) issued Bulletin 2025-03 requiring insurance carriers in Massachusetts to cover vaccines recommended by DPH, whether or not they align with CDC recommendations. This bulletin covers a broad array of vaccines, from Covid and flu to measles and chickenpox vaccines.
  2. DPH Commissioner Dr. Goldstein issued a standing order to allow pharmacies across the state to continue to provide Covid vaccines to Massachusetts residents aged five and over. This directly addressed the basis for suspending vaccine administration given by CVS and Walgreens, which are again offering Covid vaccine shots.
  3. Eight states in the northeast, including most all of the New England states (i.e., not New Hampshire), are working on a public health collaboration to safeguard public health in the face of the federal government’s abandonment of science. This mirrors the health care alliance formed by Oregon, Washington and California.

2. New BCBS Foundation report on effect of Reconciliation Act provisions on health care access in Massachusetts.

The BlueCross BlueShield Foundation released a report on expected impacts in Massachusetts of the 2025 Reconciliation Act, also known as OB3. Titled Six-Month Redeterminations and Work Requirements: Impacts on Health Coverage in Massachusetts, the report concludes that between 110,000 and 180,000 individuals in the Medicaid expansion population in Massachusetts would become uninsured after implementation of the new redetermination and work provisions. Notably, the report underestimates the full impact on coverage in Massachusetts because it only models the 6-month redeterminations, which are slated to go into effect by December 31, 2026, and work requirements, which are slated to go into effect by January 1, 2027. It does not take into account the coverage losses that will result from the other provisions in OB3 impacting Medicaid and the Marketplace.

Some key findings of the report include

  • Many of those losing coverage would still be eligible and may re-enroll within the year.
  • The churn resulting from reenrollment after procedural disenrollment will increase Medicaid program costs.
  • The number of uninsured people in Massachusetts would increase between 37-65% in an average month, due to the 6-month redeterminations and work requirements.

3. Escalation in ICE actions in Massachusetts – resource reminder.

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) escalated its deportation efforts in Massachusetts this weekend, on the heels of a lawsuit filed against the City of Boston by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) challenging the city’s Trust Act. The DOJ alleges that the Trust Act, which limits the Boston Police’s collaboration with ICE to matters of significant public safety (such as child exploitation and human trafficking) violates federal law.

This new assault will have cascading impacts on our neighbors and in our communities. Here are some resources for this critical time:

4. Upcoming HCWG

Our next Health Care Working Group meeting will be Wednesday, September 24, 3:00 - 4:30 pm. Please email jkaplan@mlri.org or ksymmonds@mlri.org if you would like to add anything to the agenda.