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| Statement by Senator Moore on the Commonwealth’s new health care law |
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April 12, 2006, BOSTON - Today, we celebrate the legislative achievement of access to quality health care for virtually every resident of Massachusetts that was enthusiastically embraced in a bi-partisan fashion by nearly every member of the Legislature last week. It is an achievement that began a number of months ago with Senate President Travaglini’s call to reduce the ranks of those without health insurance at the Blue Cross Foundation’s “Road Map” conference. It is an achievement that was subsequently embraced by Governor Romney, Speaker DiMasi, nearly all of my legislative colleagues, by health care advocates, business leaders, and so many others over the last fifteen months. We owe a great deal to all of them and to our very capable legislative staff who labored so long and well to craft this legislation. There is ample credit to be shared by so many and it can go a long way in restoring public confidence in our state government. I am proud to have been a part of this truly remarkable consensus for a caring Commonwealth! At the spring forum of the National Conference of State Legislatures meeting last week in Washington, Secretary Michael Leavitt told legislators from around the country on Friday that this legislation was, in his words, “profoundly exciting,” and legislators from Arkansas to Wyoming asked me for information about our innovative plan. I am confident that this bill with all of its features makes Massachusetts, once again, as the “city on a hill” that is a beacon of progress for the nation. Today could have been the culmination of a bipartisan executive/legislative partnership of historic proportions that began a year ago when Governor Romney and I shook hands with Channel Five’s Natalie Jacobsen. Unfortunately, the governor chose to veto key components of the bill, including dental benefits for the poor. I am confident that the Legislature will act quickly and overwhelmingly to reverse those actions. In the end, the Massachusetts legislature’s historic bipartisan achievement of health care reform should serve as a model for insuring all Americans, something of which we can all be proud. I look forward to working with the various agencies involved in implementing this sweeping legislation. |
