Cosponsor H.1405 Before March 18th

I am writing to respectfully urge you to cosponsor H.1405, An Act Establishing Medicare for All in Massachusetts, before the reporting date of Wednesday, March 18, 2026, and to encourage your colleagues to do the same. H.1405 establishes the Massachusetts Health Care Trust to guarantee health care as a right for every resident and eliminates deductibles, co-pays, co-insurance, and other cost sharing. It replaces the fragmented multi-payer system with a single, comprehensive public plan designed to reduce administrative waste and control costs. A January 2026 independent economic analysis by Auden Cote-L’Heureux (University of Bonn) and Professor Gerald Friedman (UMass Amherst) evaluates the bill as if implemented in 2026 and finds that single payer would lower total health care spending by $29.87 billion (23%) in the first year alone, with savings increasing in subsequent years . The report calculates current annual Massachusetts health care expenditures at $128.57 billion. By eliminating unnecessary spending, total expenditures would fall to $98.70 billion in 2026. Specifically, the analysis finds that switching to single payer would eliminate $54.53 billion in unnecessary spending (over 42% of current spending) by reducing: Insurance administrative overhead and billing waste Provider administrative burdens Excess hospital and physician pricing Monopolistic pricing of drugs and devices Fraud and inefficiencies Of that $54.53 billion in gross savings, $24.67 billion would be reinvested to expand coverage and improve care. This includes $11.76 billion to expand coverage to the uninsured and improve coverage for the underinsured, with the remaining funds primarily used to raise Medicare and Medicaid payment rates . After those improvements, $29.87 billion would be returned to the economy in the first year alone. The report details six major sources of savings. Reducing private insurance administrative costs to Medicare levels would save $9.40 billion in insurance administration and $14.35 billion in provider administration. Negotiating provider rates at an average of 110% of Medicare would still yield substantial savings while maintaining strong provider compensation. Lowering hospital prices to Medicare rates plus 10% would save $15.81 billion, and reducing physician prices to the same benchmark would save $4.65 billion. Negotiating drug and device prices down by roughly 45%—similar to the Veterans Administration—would save another $6.25 billion. Importantly, while average payment rates would be lower than those currently paid by private insurers, physicians’ incomes are projected to increase due to rates above Medicare/Medicaid levels and higher service utilization from newly covered patients. On the revenue side, the Trust would be financed through existing federal and state funds totaling $63.09 billion, combined with four new health care taxes that replace premiums, deductibles, and out-of-pocket costs. These taxes—each with a $20,000 exemption—include: 7.5% employer payroll tax (8% for employers with 100+ workers) 2.5% employee payroll tax 10% tax on self-employed net income 10% tax on certain non-payroll income Together, these taxes would raise $46.01 billion, bringing total funding to $109.1 billion—more than enough to cover system costs and leaving a $10.4 billion surplus for contingencies in 2026. The report concludes that over 98% of Massachusetts households would spend less on health care under the Act than they do now, with the largest savings going to working households earning under $75,000. Households earning less than $500,000 annually would see substantial net savings, plus an estimated additional $5,000 in income in the first year due to improved productivity and macroeconomic feedback effects. Beyond fiscal savings, the study finds that the transition would “save lives, expand care, reduce practitioner burnout, and promote the solvency of community hospitals and health centers”. H.1405 provides the statutory framework to implement this transformation through a dedicated Health Care Trust Fund and a transparent financing structure. The full January 2026 report is available here: https://masscare.org/economic-analysis/ The evidence is clear: Massachusetts can expand coverage, improve care, and lower total costs—simultaneously. I respectfully urge you to cosponsor H.1405 before March 18, 2026, and to encourage your colleagues to do the same. Thank you for your consideration and leadership.