Earlier in the day we sent out MLRI's summary of the HWM budget. Amendments are due tomorrow. While health programs fared far better than services for homeless families or cash assistance recipients, the budget did not address ongoing problems with restricted dental benefits, unreasonable delays at MassHealth offices, or support for outreach and enrollment grants.
Please call your representatives to co-sponsor the following health amendments which are priorities of the Affordable Care Today Coalition.
PLEASE CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES TODAY AND ASK THEM TO SUPPORT:
- Rep. Aguiar’s amendments to invest in MassHealth operations and systems improvements to ensure access to care for low-income residents. Representatives should contact Kevin.Aguiar@mahouse.gov to sign on.
- Rep. Andrew’s amendment to fund the MassHealth Outreach Grants at $2.5 million. Representatives should contact Suzanne Curry at scurry@hcfama.org to sign on.
- Rep. Scibak’s amendments to begin to restore MassHealth adult dental benefits. Representatives should contact Annie.Martin-McDonough@mahouse.gov to sign on.
More information on each amendment is below.
MassHealth Operations
Rep. Aguiar is filing two amendments to bring funding for MassHealth operations line items 4000-1602 and 4000-1604 back up to the levels in the Governor’s budget ($2,000,000 and $3,125,000 respectively).
| Line Item | Description | Governor | House Ways & Means |
| 4000-1602 | Investment in MassHealth field operations, customer service and application/renewal processing times improvements | $2,000,000 |
$500,000 |
| 4000-1604 | Systems improvements to implement the Affordable Care Act and payment reform | $3,125,000 | $750,000 |
MassHealth Outreach Grants
Rep. Andrews is filing an amendment to restore the 4000-0352 line item and $2,500,000 for the MassHealth Outreach Grants. These grants were funded for many years until Dec. 2011. Much of Massachusetts' success getting and keeping people insured is due to the work of outreach grantees, some of whom have had to close their doors since grant funding ended.
MassHealth Adult Dental
The Oral Health Advocacy Taskforce is working with Rep. Scibak to file two amendments to begin to restore MassHealth adult dental benefits. While the ultimate goal is to fully restore all MassHealth benefits, OHAT and Rep. Scibak are taking an incremental approach to at least restore coverage for fillings in the FY13 budget.
- MassHealth Adult Dental Restoration 1 will add $16 million to line item 4000-0700.
- MassHealth Adult Dental Restoration 2 will amend language in Outside Section 76 to restore MassHealth coverage for fillings.
For more information on the dental amendments, please contact Courtney Chelo at cchelo@hcfama.org or 617.272.2935.
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