Category: Fall 2005 Newswire
Handful of Worcester-area Businesses Make EPA List
WASHINGTON. Oct. 19-With regular gasoline prices in the Worcester area above $2.50 a gallon and President Bush urging Americans to drive less, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recognized 130 Massachusetts businesses, four of them in the Worcester area, for making an effort to reduce drive-alone commuting.
The EPA’s “Best Workplaces for Commuters” program honored the Bay State companies this year, up from 33 two years ago. Businesses qualify by offering a variety of commuter benefits and incentives aimed at reducing the trips an employee makes alone. These programs range from “T” passes in Boston to shuttles and van carpools.
Lucy Edmondson, a spokeswoman for the EPA, said that even amenities workplaces provide such as an on-premises gym or drycleaner can help. “People choose to drive because they may need their cars later” to run errands, she said. Having services at or close to the workplace can eliminate trips and make carpooling more feasible.
Participating businesses are required to offer a guaranteed ride home to employees to eliminate carpoolers’ concern that they may be left behind or not be able to get home in the event of an emergency.
Erin Emblock, a spokeswoman for Genzyme Corporation, a Cambridge-based biotechnology company with a Westboro campus, said the program encouraged employees to join a carpool. “We don’t want them to be worried about getting home,” she said.
Patrick Ward, a spokesman for Intel, which has a site in Hudson, said that while the company offered transit subsidies for its employees in places like Portland, Ore., which has a light-rail system, it has to rely on other mechanisms in central Massachusetts. For example the company has a software program that matches employees with others from their areas who wish to carpool, he said.
Mr. Ward said every employee at Intel has a notebook computer, and many arrange to work one day a week at home, eliminating trips. “It’s also a life/work benefit,” he said, in cases when an employee needs to be at home for some reason, like to let the plumber in. Mr. Ward said it solves “how can I be in two places at once?” problems.
EMC, a Hopkinton-based tech company with a campus in Westboro shuttles 2,000 of its 7,700 employees to the commuter rails every day. Paul Fitzgerald, director of faculty services, said the shuttle program increases worker productivity. “While they’re in the van they’re talking on the phone, following up on meeting notes” and generally making better use of their time than by driving, he said.
EMC also has three electrical cars for employee carpooling. Mr. Fitzgerald said the company is weighing the purchase of additional vehicles for the purpose, including hybrids or natural gas-fueled cars.
The EPA’s Ms. Edmondson said there were fewer central Massachusetts companies on the list than Eastern or Western Massachusetts companies, perhaps because of a combination of fewer commuting alternatives and less traffic.
Mr. Ward and Mr. Fitzgerald both expressed some frustration with the commuter trains running west from Boston in the mornings, which are less frequent and convenient than those running the opposite way. Mr. Ward also suggested that perhaps higher property costs were to blame for a work force that is “spread thinly” and comes from all directions into work, making carpooling harder.
Ms. Edmondson said she hoped that next year there would be some Worcester businesses among the list of companies helping to combat the “twin problems of air pollution and traffic congestion” by offering their employees commuting alternatives.
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Immigration Reformation
WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 - Legislation Sen. Edward M. Kennedy is co-sponsoring is intended to assist thousands of undocumented foreign workers in Massachusetts and strengthen the U.S. immigration system.
The bipartisan legislation, introduced in May by Mr. Kennedy and Sen. John McCain, R- Ariz., is aimed at strengthening border security, protecting against immigration fraud and giving visas to employed, illegal immigrants for six years. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has given the bill its strong support.
"Our national security and economic vitality are too important to pass half-way repairs that look and sound tough but offer no real solutions or protections," Mr. Kennedy said during a Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday. "We need sensible solutions, not feel-good empty gestures."
The legislation would allow illegal workers to apply for six-year work visas. After the six years, the workers could apply for a green card to seek citizenship and could remain in the United States while their application was being processed, usually an extensive procedure.
"The McCain-Kennedy bill is the perfect solution," said Randy Feldman, a Worcester immigration lawyer. "It's helping create opportunities that don't currently exist. It's incorporated the illegal immigration system into our legal immigration system."
Another bill, introduced by Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., would require that illegal workers return to their native countries before applying for temporary working visas.
Some in the businesses community have expressed concern over the Cornyn-Kyl bill, saying that it poses a threat to their work force.
Under the McCain-Kennedy legislation, workers applying for legal status would be required to pay a $2,000 fine in addition to any back taxes they owe. During the six years, they would need to stay employed and keep a clean criminal record.
"Our bills offer a genuine alternative -not an amnesty, not a free pass, not an automatic pardon," Mr. Kennedy said at the hearing. "We offer sensible plans to encourage unauthorized workers to come forward to receive work permits and earn legal status. They will pay a substantial fine and go through rigorous security and criminal background checks."
Kennedy added, "Those who want permanent legal status must pay all their back taxes, learn English, maintain a strong work record, stay out of trouble and wait their turn."
Worcester has a very diverse immigrant population, Mr. Feldman said. He noted that recent immigrants have come from such countries as Albania, Brazil, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Poland and Vietnam.
"Ghana and Brazil are the only two groups that are still coming in large numbers," Feldman said. "But there really hasn't been an opposition to immigration in Worcester because these folks are incorporating themselves into the culture."
According to David Rushford, the Worcester city clerk, at least 78 countries are represented by immigrants in Worcester.
A poll conducted in 2001 indicates that 41 percent of the 3,200 people who applied for marriage licenses in Worcester were born outside of the United States, including 175 from Brazil, 162 from Ghana and 109 from Vietnam.
Massachusetts Delegation Urges Federal Flood Aid
WASHINGTON, Oct. 18-As flood waters continued to pressure the Whittenton Pond Dam in Taunton on Tuesday, Massachusetts' congressmen urged the federal government to take action in the rain-soaked region.
"This is an emergency situation, and Massachusetts communities urgently need federal disaster funds to rebuild homes, businesses and public roads and buildings," Senator Edward Kennedy said in a statement Tuesday. "The damages are escalating with each day."
Nearly 2,000 people were evacuated from Taunton on Monday when the dam began to show signs of potential collapse.
Rep. Barney Frank offered Taunton mayor Robert G. Nunes any assistance he could provide.
"You tell me what you want the federal government to do and we'll do it," Frank recalled telling the mayor.
Frank's office researched potential federal funds available to help repair the weakened dam.
A Frank aide contacted the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service, which provides emergency funds for dam rehabilitation and repair when there is substantial risk to life or property.
Two engineers and a geologist from the agency's Massachusetts office inspected the dam on Tuesday afternoon, in consultation with a private engineer hired by the dam's owner and representatives from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.
The inspectors had not yet filed reports, but Frank's staff believes that the dam would likely be eligible for funds. A final eligibility decision will come from the Agriculture Department in Washington.
"The federal government should be prepared to provide whatever resources and assistance necessary to protect the people and property of Taunton," Sen. John Kerry said in a press release on Tuesday. "With the devastating floods in Massachusetts this past week and the developing situation in Taunton we must have the ability to act quickly to assist our communities in need."
Disaster assessment teams representing federal and state emergency management agencies, the Small Business Administration, the Massachusetts Highway Department and the Red Cross are currently evaluating the damage the recent rain has caused to the Commonwealth, said Peter Judge, spokesman for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.
To qualify for federal aid, the state must meet a minimum threshold of approximately $6.5 million in damages, Judge said.
"We feel pretty comfortable that we are going to get [aid] out of this," Judge said. "Within the very near future we'll find out where we stand."
Kennedy, Kerry Try to Raise Heat Assistance Funding
WASHINGTON, Oct. 18-Massachusetts Senators John F. Kerry and Edward M. Kennedy plan another attempt to increase federal funds for low-income heating and weatherization assistance.
More than 10,000 Worcester households benefit from federal energy funds, and with energy prices remaining high, the senators hope to attach increased funding to spending bills that figure to move through Congress in the next few weeks.
The energy bill that President Bush signed in August authorized up to $5.1 billion for the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps pay the heating costs of households that fall below 200 percent of the national poverty line. But Congress currently plans to spend only around $2 billion for the program this year.
An effort to increase spending failed earlier this month because of GOP parliamentary maneuvering.
President Bush is "more worried about the politics of high energy prices" than high energy prices, Senator Kerry told reporters Tuesday, adding that the White House could easily persuade the Republican Congress to spend the full $5.1 billion. Instead, he said, it is a Republican "party position to stop this from happening."
David Fox, executive director of the Washington-based Campaign for Home Energy Assistance, endorsed the effort to increase spending. "We've got to have a higher [spending] number just to cover increases for this winter," he said.
Mr. Fox pointed to a recent Energy Information Administration study that projected a 32 percent increase in the cost of heating oil this winter. He said that with current spending levels, only about 15 percent of the 32 million households nationwide that are eligible for assistance could receive it.
Roughly 10,500 Worcester households benefit from the program, according to Patsy Lewis, the executive director of Worcester Community Action Council.
New England is the most expensive region in the country in which to heat a house in winter, with the average cost to consumers for heating oil projected to be as high as $1,925 this winter. Ms. Lewis said the poorest Worcester recipients of federal heating assistance last year received only $730, which, she said with a laugh, "doesn't even get a tank of gas in the Northeast."
She said that without additional assistance her agency's clients-one third of whom are elderly people living on a fixed income-may compensate for the cost of heating by not filling a prescription or going to the doctor when they need to.
Senator Kerry said he expects the next attempt to pass the extra funds to come this week.
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Sixteen and on Capitol Hill
WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 - Unlike most 16-year-olds, John Atsalis does not spend his days at school socializing and making plans for the weekend. He does not spend his evenings at high school football games or track practice.
Instead, Atsalis, of Exeter, is spending the first half of his junior year as close to politics as he can get--on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington.
"The biggest thing about the routine is that there is no routine," Atsalis said in an interview on Capitol Hill last week. "Every day is different."
Along with 64 other high school juniors from across the country, Atsalis, a student at Exeter High School, is participating in the House Page Program, in which he attends classes in the morning and works on Capitol Hill in the afternoon.
"We're on the floor, so we see what goes on, and then the next day we read it in the newspaper," Atsalis said. "We really are there."
The program, which has its counterpart in the Senate, began more than 200 years ago and provides high school juniors with the opportunity to see congressional proceedings up close while performing important tasks such as delivering correspondence, legislative materials and small packages within Capitol Hill and assisting representatives.
During their time in Washington, House pages live in a dormitory only two and a half blocks from the Capitol and receive a monthly gross salary of $1,515.92, though they must pay $400 for their food and housing.
"I think it's a wonderful experience," said Atsalis' mother, Leone, a commercial pilot. "He gets the insider's point of view."
His uncle serves in the Massachusetts legislature, but Atsalis' mother said her son's interest in politics began much earlier. When he was eight, she said, he knew the names of all of the Presidents of the United States.
"I think it's who he is," his mother said. "He was just that kind of kid."
Atsalis said he learned of the page program from a co-worker of his father's, Konstantinos, who also is a pilot.
After reviewing the House and Senate program applications during the winter of his freshman year, Atsalis said, he knew it was something he wanted to pursue.
Admitting she was nervous her son would not get into the program, Atsalis' mother said she was also worried about letting her son go so far away from home at such a young age.
Though the program offers two three-week summer sessions, which do not require students to attend classes and would have allowed Atsalis to run cross-country races this fall, indoor track this winter and not leave his friends for such an extended period of time, he said he wanted to attend class at the Page School to obtain the full experience.
"The school aspect, while it leads to really long nights and really early mornings, is really fun," Atsalis said, adding that he is excited about being outside of New England for a winter.
Before getting accepted into the program, Atsalis had to obtain recommendations from teachers and friends, write an essay and obtain sponsorship from a member of New Hampshire's congressional delegation.
After applying to both the Senate Page Program through Sen. Judd Gregg and the House Page Program with the assistance of Rep. Jeb Bradley, Atsalis learned this summer that he had been accepted into the House program.
"Pages play an important role in the day-to-day operations of the U.S. House of Representatives and provide an invaluable service to Members of Congress," Rep. Jeb Bradley told the Union Leader. "John is a bright young man, and I know he will experience many new ideas and challenges as a House page."
Though Atsalis later learned that he was a strong candidate for the Senate program, he said he is glad to be in the House program.
"Nothing against the Senate, but more things happen here," he said. "It's much more nuts and bolts."
As competitive and prestigious as admission into the program is, it is a lot of hard work too, Atsalis said.
"On a good day," Atsalis said he wakes at 5 a.m. and begins classes at the House Page School in the attic of the Library of Congress at 6:45 a.m.
"It all depends on how late you went to bed the night before," he added.
During classes, which range from 12 to 50 minutes depending on the House schedule that day, Atsalis studies British literature, chemistry, intermediate Spanish, pre-calculus with trigonometry and government and politics.
In addition, Atsalis will receive credit for a course called Washington Seminar, which provides students with prominent speakers and offers field trips throughout the Washington area, as well as credit for his time working in the House.
"You get used to the fact that you're not going to get an A," Atsalis said, adding that the program involves a lot of pop quizzes and mandatory study hall if a student fails to maintain an 80 percent average or drops below the grade he or she has "contracted" for with the instructor.
Atsalis said he has had to attend study hall once, in science, for receiving a grade below that for which he has contracted.
"It's a pretty small program, with maybe 15 kids in each class," Atsalis said. "This is really like a private school, and we describe ourselves as public-private."
Aside from his classes and time on the floor, Atsalis said he enjoys meeting people from different parts of the country.
"We have more people from the South, which is interesting because I get to meet new people, especially when we have sports rivalries going on," he said.
There are only two other House pages from New England, one from Connecticut and one from Massachusetts.
"We have a lot of different cultures," he said. "But at the same time, that's what America is, a bunch of different cultures."
Atsalis, who has many interests such as politics, aviation and engineering, said he would like to be a politician one day though he is open to other options.
He is scheduled to return home in January, but Atsalis said he would enjoy staying in Washington for the whole year if reappointed.
"It's such a nice life here," he said. "When you go home, it's going to be difficult to realize you don't have to get up as early, that you don't have to go through metal detectors all the time."
New Painting in Capitol Profiles Female Trailblazer Senator
WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 - She was the first woman to be elected to both the House and Senate, the first woman to get elected to the Senate on her own and the first woman to have her name placed in nomination for president at a major party's convention.
And now, the late Margaret Chase Smith, originally of Skowhegan, Maine will forever watch over the halls of the Capitol.
Amid the gilded pillars and plush-red-carpet-with-stars that decorate the old Senate Chamber, Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe - both wearing red roses in allegiance to their mentor - unveiled Smith's portrait Tuesday. Smith died in 1995 at the age of 97.
"She did make an extraordinary difference for women as I can tell you from my own personal experience," Snowe said. "I well remember the sense of awe when I came to Washington D.C. . as a senior in college, sitting across the desk from her. Little did I realize that because of the doors that she opened she would make it possible for me to sit one day at her very desk on the floor of the United States Senate."
Snowe, who requested in 1999 that the Senate Commission on Art commission a portrait of Smith, said the portrait reflects a woman of "myriad dimensions." Smith rose from the "most humble of beginnings to the highest corridors of power," she said.
Added Collins: "For every woman serving in the United States Senate, but part for Olympia Snowe and me, Sen. Margaret Chase Smith blazed the path because she was senator the entire time we were growing up."
Artist Ronald Frontin, who lives in South Thomaston, Maine, was selected in 2000 from among 30 applicants nationwide to paint the portrait.
In the oil portrait, Smith, wearing a royal blue dress, double-stranded pearls and her famous single red rose, is standing at her desk in the Senate Chambers holding the "Declaration of Conscience," a 1950 speech in which she criticized Sen. Joe McCarthy, who was carrying out a witch-hunt against citizens and public officials who he alleged were communists.
Frontin used a small black-and-white slide of Smith's face as the base for the portrait, he said, adding that the picture is really more of a compilation of many different pictures of her.
"There wasn't one photograph where she was ever in this pose," Frontin said. "It was sort of a scavenger hunt and then putting it all together."
Smith's niece and nephew, staff from the Margaret Chase Smith Library, in Skowhegan , curators and some senators played a role in the painting's creation.
"It was a bunch of people from all different angles and interests looking at the painting," he said. "We all put our heads together and tried to get something that we all agreed on."
Frontin, who has thick salt and pepper, wavy hair, attended the ceremony yesterday with his wife and two young sons. Standing shyly in Khaki pants and black shirt, he was a sharp contrast to the high-powered officials in suits- including Senate Majority and Minority leaders Bill Frist and Harry Reid - gathered around him.
"I get more nervous than anything," Frontin said about these events. "I'm more comfortable behind the easel than I am in situations like this."
The painting of Smith is a little dark and Frontin said this was for aesthetic reasons.
"The Senate chamber is yellow and if I painted it with the bright yellow in the background aesthetically it just wasn't going to work," he said. "Muting the colors back .pushes her out."
Earlier this month, Frontin unveiled at the Penobscot County Courthouse his portrait of Former Maine State Supreme Court Justice Paul L. Rudman,. He has also painted a portrait of State Supreme Court Justice Samuel Collins, which hangs in the Knox Country Courthouse, and a portrait of Snowe's husband, Jack McKernan, the former governor of Maine, for the statehouse.
Smith served in Congress for 32 years from 1940 to 1972. After the 1940 death of her husband, Rep. Clyde Smith, she was elected to fill his seat and served in the House for eight years. In 1948 she ran for the Senate, where she stayed for 24 years. She was the first woman to serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee. In 1964 Smith's name was placed in nomination for president at the Republican convention.
Collins first met Smith when she was a senior in high school and she took part in the Senate Youth program. Collins said she expected a handshake and a photo but ended up talking to Smith for two hours.
"I remember leaving her office feeling so proud that she was my senator and I also remember thinking that girls can grow up to be anything," Collins said. "What I remember most is her telling me to always stand tall for what I believed in."
Shays Criticizes Reconstruction Progress in Iraq
By Mandy Kozar
WASHINGTON, Oct. 18-Progress in Iraq has been hampered by volatile security, naïve planning assumptions, disorganization and corruption, Republican Rep. Christopher Shays said Tuesday.
"Limited visible progress improving basic services frustrates Iraqis who wonder why a liberating coalition that conquered their nation in less than two months can't keep the lights lit after two years," said Shays, who returned last week from a visit to Iraq.
A panel of witnesses that included the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction and inspectors general from other agencies took intense questioning Tuesday from members of the Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations, which Shays chairs . The members wanted to know why the Administration's initial estimates of time and money were so far off.
In 2003, the Bush Administration asked for $20 billion for reconstruction in Iraq, saying it would be used to restore oil production to pre-war levels, increase electricity production and provide drinking water to 90 percent of Iraqis. To date, the administration has appropriated $30 billion, with another $13.6 billion coming from international donors.
"We are not there yet," said Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, after Rep. Henry Waxman (D-California) asked if the administration had fulfilled its goals.
"Today's Iraqi oil production and export levels are still well below pre-war levels," Shays said.
Joseph A. Christoff of the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm, testified that the initial estimates did not take into account the degree of insurgency facing the reconstruction efforts.
"The United States has confronted a capable and lethal insurgency that has taken many lives and made rebuilding Iraq a costly and challenging endeavor," he said.
Christoff also said it was unclear when Iraqi security forces would be capable of operating without the aid of the U.S. military and how efforts were progressing to provide Iraqis with clean water and reliable electricity.
Although Iraq has 116 police and army combat battalions active in battling insurgents, only one of these battalions was assessed as functioning at "level one," or fully capable of planning, executing and sustaining independent counter-insurgency operations.
Subcommittee members also asked about funds that have gone unaccounted for during the reconstruction. According to Christoff, $34 million in money and assets is missing.
Although there were rumors that the money was stolen, Bowen said this information was misreported. He blamed lack of a paper trail for the missing funds rather than corruption or fraudulent appropriation.
"There should have been better accountability," Bowen said.
Representatives also criticized the oversight the Pentagon's inspectors general, saying that the Department of Defense does not have a single auditor overseeing its projects in Iraq.
"The DOD IG is MIA," said Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, who berated acting Inspector General Thomas Gimble for what he called an abandonment of responsibility by the Department of Defense.
All the officials agreed that the eventual goal was to create a secure and sustainable system in Iraq.
To Bowen, this means that the military cannot just pull out of Iraq.
"What we hand over has to endure for democracy to endure there," Bowen said.
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Kennedy and McCain Promote Immigration Bill
WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 - Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) pushed their bipartisan immigration overhaul Tuesday, taking their case to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce immigration conference.
Earlier this year Kennedy and McCain introduced a bill to restructure the country's immigration policy. Kennedy said he was optimistic the Senate, House and Bush Administration will be able to cooperate on the issue.
"We could really do something that is really in our national interest, in the interest of our national heritage," Kennedy said.
Both senators described controlling the borders as a national security matter.
McCain said that while border enforcement funds have tripled and the number of agents patrolling the borders has doubled, illegal immigration has doubled as well.
"There is a demand and there is a supply," McCain said. "When people can't feed themselves and their families where they are, they'll go some place where they can."
The legislation seeks to differentiate between legal and illegal immigrants and provide the legal ones with a simplified route toward visas and eventually green cards.
Illegal immigrants already in the country would have the opportunity to gain temporary visas to continue jobs in the United States but only after paying a fee and passing rigorous security checks. These workers would have to work at least six more years in the country, go through further security checks, pay more fees and pass several other requirements before being considered for permanent legal residency.
Kennedy expressed a desire to see greater cooperation on immigration issues from Latin American countries.
"Unless we're going to have an active Mexican government that's going to work with us . . . it's going to be all the more difficult," Kennedy said.
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Positive Outcome in Saturday’s Election Could Shift Responsibility in Iraq
By Tara Fehr
WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 - Wrapping up a six-day tour of Iraq, Qatar and Kuwait, Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., predicted a positive outcome for Saturday's referendum, but also showed concern toward future U.S. involvement.
Speaking on a conference call from Kuwait on Wednesday, Dodd, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said the Sunnis appeared more optimistic because the interim assembly had been making changes to the draft constitution which would allow revisions four months after its adoption. This had been an an initial concern for the Iraqi group.
Dodd traveled with Rhode Island Democrat Jack Reed, a member of the Armed Services Committee. The senators talked with soldiers, military commanders, Qatar's foreign minister, Sheikh Hamad Bin Jaber al-Thani, and Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari.
"Most people still think it is going to be close one way or another," Dodd said. "It's not a sure thing that this is going to carry, but there is a positive reaction about it."
If the constitution is approved, Dodd said, people will be encouraged to go to the polls and set up a more permanent government during the National Assembly Election on Dec. 15.
Successes in these next two elections could shift responsibility in Iraq onto the country's own forces, or at least it should, Dodd said.
"I would be [an advocate] if we started reducing the size of our military come after these elections, after the referendum, sometime after the first of the year," Dodd said. "Again, demonstrate to them that this is the direction that we're going in."
But Congress doesn't have a timeline yet, and a spokesman for the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., said the senator will discuss the timeline issue with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice when she testifies before the committee on Wednesday.
Nevertheless, Dodd expressed concerns about the future U.S. presence in Iraq.
"We need to be doing a better job in communicating to the Iraqis that we aren't here for the long-haul," Dodd said. "I was under the impression that we're doing too much hand-holding and we really need to break clean of that."
A clean break would include properly-trained Iraqi troops and a police force, Dodd said, adding that he has learned that a number of these battalions are ready to take over the responsibility.
"You are not going to win this battle over here militarily," Dodd said. "It's going to be won politically."
Big Decisions Loom for Medicaid
WASHINGTON, Oct. 13-More than 250 patients a day-children getting vaccines, elderly pneumonia sufferers, pregnant young women-pass through the Greater New Bedford Community Health Center.
"Approximately 50 to 55 percent of the patients we see are on Medicaid, so obviously it's very important," said Peter Georgeopoulos, executive vice president and chief financial officer of the center.
The future of Medicaid-on which more than a third New Bedford residents depend-will be at stake in upcoming weeks as congressional committees debate how to shave $10 billion from the program's budget over the next five years. Medicaid, financed by the state and federal governments, pays for health care for low-income persons.
Some call the anticipated changes inappropriate cuts, while others characterize them as much-needed reform.
"Medicaid is already strapped for cash," said Jodi Seth, spokeswoman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee Democrats. "Obviously [cuts] would have a devastating effect on states and the people who depend on [the program]: pregnant women, children, seniors."
A budget resolution passed by Congress in April requires a $10 billion reduction in spending on entitlement programs over the next five years. It is widely expected that this money will come from the Medicaid budget.
Another element of the budget resolution calls for $70 billion in tax cuts. Some Democrats say it is inappropriate to continue reducing tax revenue while cutting programs for the needy.
"If the President wants to restore fiscal responsibility, he should insist on shared sacrifice and roll back his tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans instead of cutting the lifeline many kids need to get immunized and see a doctor," said Sen. John Kerry in a statement to the Standard-Times.
Kerry is a member of the Senate Finance Committee, which is charged with making the Medicaid cuts.
The federal budget for Medicaid in the current fiscal year is $157 billion.
Those who support the spending reduction characterize the upcoming legislation as a reform package, rather than a budget cut. They hope that allowing states more flexibility in the way they administer the program would cut costs while actually improving quality of care.
"States should have greater flexibility to better target scarce resources and offer coverage that better meets each patient's needs," said Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, in an editorial last month.
Though specifics are not yet available, the suggested reforms include measures to reduce fraud, target wasteful spending and increase Medicaid recipients' financial responsibilities.
Some congressmen, concerned that such measures could reduce the ability of the most disadvantaged to receive needed health care, are hesitant to sign on to the leadership's proposals.
"Reduced access is most likely the biggest concern," said Jill Gerber, GOP spokeswoman for the Senate Finance Committee. "The discussion hinges upon whether that's a legitimate concern or whether there's enough waste in the system to cut back."
One possible reform would require some recipients to pay premiums for their Medicaid coverage or increased co-payments for services. Some critics are concerned that such measures could prevent people from seeking treatment.
"You don't want patients delaying necessary care for want of some co-payment money," said Paul Wingle, spokesman for the Massachusetts Hospital Association. "When they do that, their health fails and a preventable problem becomes a medical emergency."
In Massachusetts, hospital officials are concerned about the possible effects of the budget cuts. Even at the current level of funding, hospitals are not receiving enough money to cover the services they are providing, said Wingle.
"In Massachusetts at least, every time we serve a Medicaid patient we lose money," said Wingle. "It's a reduction any way you look at it-the labels are a product more of spin than of substance."
In the greater New Bedford area, need is even greater due to above average poverty levels.
"We have a disproportionate share of Medicaid patients," said Joyce Brennan, spokeswoman for Southcoast Health Systems, which includes hospitals in New Bedford, Fall River, and Wareham. "Any cut in an already underfunded program is going to be substantial for us."
