in May<\/a>, aims to save the city and its residents from exorbitant prices and help remedy the city\u2019s homeless crisis.<\/p>\n\u201cThis is a long, long slog and a very powerful health insurance lobby to try to change,\u201d commission member Linda Goldstein said. \u201cIt\u2019s important that communities in western Mass understand the impact, not only to the general population, but also to the homeless.\u201d <\/p>\n
Jablon said Finance Director Stephen Nembirkow ran the numbers with him, and estimated that, in fiscal year 2026, the city would likely save close to $6 million in health insurance costs under a single-payer system.<\/p>\n
In February, state Sen. Jamie Eldridge and Reps. Lindsay Sabadosa and Margaret Scarsdale refiled legislation to establish single-payer health insurance in Massachusetts. The legislation, called \u201cAn Act Establishing Medicare for All in Massachusetts\u201d (H.1405\/S.860), seeks to establish the Massachusetts Healthcare Trust: a single payer of all health care costs to replace insurance companies.<\/p>\n
If passed, the legislation would make Massachusetts the first state in the country to adopt a single-payer health care system. According to Greenfield\u2019s Chief of Staff Erin Anhalt, the city, in fiscal year 2026, is paying approximately $10.62 million in health insurance costs, not including the copays that are the responsibility of each of the city\u2019s employees.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the rising health care costs that are crippling the city budget, looking at alternatives is very important,\u201d City Council President Lora Wondolowski said in an interview Tuesday. \u201cWith people losing Medicare and Medicaid benefits, we\u2019re going to be in a tough spot.\u201d<\/p>\n
The resolution, Wondolowski said, will go before the Committee Chairs subcommittee, which will decide whether it must be assigned to a different subcommittee for review before it reaches the full City Council.<\/p>\n
Jablon, in an interview Tuesday morning, said multiple city councilors have expressed interest in the resolution. He added that single-payer health care appears to be a nonpartisan issue backed by supporters on both sides of the political aisle.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe part of this that is so exciting to me is this really seems to be a non-partisan issue. \u2026 There have been non-binding ballot questions, as far back as \u201998 but this year as well, and it\u2019s won in every district in the state, and two in western Mass that Trump carried,\u201d he said. \u201cThis issue of single-payer health care is not one of those things that has any division. It\u2019s across the board. The only thing stopping it is lobbying from the insurance industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we could get this passed, both in the state to start, but also at the national level,\u201d Jablon continued, \u201cit would save every citizen tremendous amounts of money, and we would get health care that\u2019s well beyond things that we get from insurance companies.\u201d <\/p>\n
Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at acammalleri@recorder.com or 413-930-4429.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Greenfield City Hall. STAFF FILE PHOTO\/PAUL FRANZ GREENFIELD \u2014 The Human Rights Commission voted unanimously in favor of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-13104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Greenfield](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/51192188.jpg\" "\\"Greenfield")
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