City Council backs health care amendment to constitution

By AARON NICODEMUS,
New Bedford Standard-Times staff writer, July 7, 2004

NEW BEDFORD -- The City Council has endorsed a proposed constitutional amendment that would require the state to make sure every one of its residents has access to affordable health care.

The amendment does not require the state to provide health care coverage to every resident, explained Barbara Roop of the Healthcare for Massachusetts Campaign in Cambridge, which gathered 71,000 signatures in favor of the amendment.

Rather, it would require the state to make sure there is a place for every resident to buy affordable health insurance.

"We've identified $5.7 billion in savings, money that we already spend on health care in the state, that could be spent more efficiently," she said.
Just opening doctors' offices on weekends so that people can visit them instead of incurring a more expensive visit to an emergency room, as well as tackling administrative costs and upgrading computer networks would provide much of the savings, she said.

Marlene Pollock of the Coalition for Social Justice in New Bedford said the organization gathered 2,200 signatures of registered voters in the area who support the amendment.

"There comes a time when the people in a democracy have to take a stand and say that, in the richest country in the world, no human being should have to suffer and die because they have no access to health care," Ms. Pollock said.

More than 600,000 Massachusetts residents are uninsured, according to the Healthcare for Massachusetts Campaign.

The City Council became the second in the state to endorse the amendment, after Cambridge.

The council unanimously endorsed the proposed amendment at its June 24 meeting. The amendment will be heard before the Constitutional Convention of the state Legislature, which reconvenes today.

Ward 5 Councilor Jane L. Gonsalves, who sponsored the endorsement for the amendment on City Council floor, said, "I believed we need to address the lack of health care coverage in this state, but I wouldn't support anything trying to force businesses to shoulder the burden."

State Sen. Mark C.W. Montigny said he would support the amendment if it is put to a vote.

"We have the best health care system in the world, we spend more money on health care than any country in the world, and yet we have the highest rate of uninsured in the developed world," he said. "We've turned what should be a lifesaving service that is a right for everyone, not a privilege, into one of the most greed-driven industries in the country."

The amendment was placed on the Constitutional Convention after supporters gathered 71,000 signatures of registered voters across the state. Fifty legislators would have to approve the amendment during the convention, then it must be approved by the Constitutional Convention again in 2005 or 2006. If it passes a second time, the amendment would go before voters in a ballot question in 2006.

This story appeared on Page A7 of The Standard-Times on July 7, 2004.

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