AGAWAM — Voters in the districts currently represented by state Reps. Nicholas Boldyga (R-Southwick) and Kelly Pease (R-Westfield) will decide this November whether to ask the representative to support a statewide single-payer health care system.
Known as Question 6, the non-binding ballot measure is part of an initiative by Mass-Care, an organization that has worked to pass legislation establishing such a system for the past 15 years. According to its website, Mass-Care, formally known as the Massachusetts Campaign for Single Payer Health Care, has gotten the question onto the general election ballots of 11 legislative districts.
Retired health care executive and Mass-Care board member Guy Qvistgaard helped collect the 200 signatures required to get it on the ballot in Boldyga’s district, which covers most of Agawam, and the entirety of Blandford, Chester, Huntington, Granville, Middlefield, Montgomery, Russell, Southwick and Tolland.
Qvistgaard said signatures came from residents in Montgomery, Granville, Southwick, Russell, Agawam and Feeding Hills, where Qvistgaard lives.
“The stronger folks fall on conservative side, the less they support it. And yet, I’m finding that a lot of independents, most Democrats and a good number of Republicans do support the idea that this is a great step in fixing our health care problems,” he said.
Those problems include rising premiums, the need to ensure providers are in network, and the ability for people on fixed incomes to pay for copays and medicine, he said.
Voters in the district covering most of Westfield and all of Southampton, where Pease is the incumbent, will also have Question 6 on their ballots. Pease is opposed on the ballot by Bridget Matthews-Kane (D-Westfield).
MassCare is currently working to get legislators to reconsider two bills establishing statewide single-payer health care, the House version being sponsored by state Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa (D-Northampton). Qvistgaard said the proposed legislation calls for no copays, premiums or deductibles. He also said dental, vision, hearing and long-term care would be covered, unlike commercial insurance where coverage is non-existent or minimal. Anyone could go to any licensed medical provider they choose, he said.
The system would be partly funded with a 10% payroll tax, with 7.5% from all employers in the state and 2.5% from employees. No Social Security or pensions would be taxed. Qvistgaard said those who aren’t employed or who are financially strained wouldn’t pay the tax, and those who would will save money on their health care.
“It’s, at minimum, a 50% savings for most folks who are currently paying for health insurance,” he said.
The city of Agawam would save approximately $12.9 million, he said.
There is no opt-out in the proposed legislation for those who don’t want to take part in the single-payer health care system.
“Basically, it would end commercial insurance in Massachusetts,” he said. “People on Medicare, Medicaid or MassHealth, for example, those federal funds would then be funneled into the Massachusetts Health Care Trust.”
Qvistgaard also said single-payer health care isn’t tied to employment.
“In essence, your health care does not follow your job, it follows you, so, it would not be job-dependent,” he said.
Asked about wait times, Qvistgaard said they’d be no longer than what Americans currently experience. He called the common conservative claims about Canadian wait times being longer a “scare tactic,” saying they are shorter for care that isn’t “extremely specialized.”
As a non-binding question, this ballot question would simply make a suggestion to the district’s representative on how to vote. Boldyga, who has no opponent on the November ballot, said in a statement that single-payer health care would be disastrous.
“A single-payer system would crush market-driven innovations, lead to longer wait times, limit access to specialists, and drive costs even higher. This anti-competitive approach to health care is a disaster in the making. Voters should beware that this is a failed socialist policy being promoted by ultra progressives, self-avowed socialists, and other far-left extremists,” he said.
This is not the first time single-payer health care has been an issue in Agawam. The Agawam City Council tackled it in February, after Councilor Thomas Hendrickson introduced a resolution to support Medicare for All in Massachusetts. Had it passed, copies of the resolution would’ve been sent to Gov. Maura Healey, Boldyga and the town’s other representatives on Beacon Hill.
On Feb. 5, the day of the vote, Hendrickson withdrew the resolution. Councilor George Bitzas at that time referred to single-payer health care as “socialized medicine,” and said millions of people disagreed with Medicare for All.
(This article was edited Oct. 24, 2024, to correct the spelling and add the full name of Mass-Care, and to note that the group’s proposal envisions the payroll tax providing only part of the funds for single-payer health care. The rest of the cost would come from existing government spending.)
