Blog
November 15, 2017
Massachusetts ARA spent much of 2017 defending Healthcare
Almost immediately after Trump was elected, the Massachusetts Alliance swung into action, joining the National ARA campaign to defend Medicare, Medicaid, and access to healthcare in general against attacks we anticipated would be coming soon.
Even though he had pledged that he would not touch Social Security or Medicare during the election season, labor and ARA knew better. We were able to set up meetings with the majority of the Massachusetts federal delegation over the holiday season.
Fortunately, there was little doubt where our delegation stands on these key issues. Mass. ARA delegations were formed around members of the board and activist members from the districts of the Reps., but we made a point of inviting other labor and community groups to join in our delegations for strategy talks with the congressional offices.
Representative Capuano, whose district includes Somerville, Cambridge, and much of Boston made time to meet in person with the Mass ARA delegation and reaffirmed his commitment to our issues. With the Congressman and with staffers in the offices of Senator Warren, Representatives Katherine Clark, Joe Kennedy, Seth Moulton, Nikki Tsongas and Bill Keating, our delegations expressed our appreciation at their leadership in the fight to preserve senior healthcare.
We offered to be resources, providing them with the stories from the lives of our members and seniors in Massachusetts that illustrate the importance of preserving Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act in tact. As the year proceeded we joined in the battles to defeat the multiple attacks on the Affordable Care Act.
Members joined a labor led protest to challenge House Speaker Ryan when he came to Lawrence to demand no cuts to Medicare, and attended numerous rallies against the attempt to repeal the affordable care act. As a new chapter of the ARA, our participation in this critical battle helped introduce us to the Congressional offices. The battle is far from over and we look forward to doing our part to mobilize the growing senior population, soon to be a 5th of the Commonwealth’s population to defend and extend healthcare.