BOSTON (SHNS) – After Gov. Maura Healey tried unsuccessfully to make budget cuts last year that would have reduced services to the elderly and people with disabilities, advocates are reaching out to her office ahead of this year’s budget season to plead for full funding in fiscal 2026.
Under Healey’s fiscal 2025 budget, 6,000 people would have lost access to personal care assistants (PCAs), who help seniors and people with disabilities with services they need to live at home, including bathing, dressing, meal preparation, feeding, help using the bathroom, housekeeping, and grocery shopping.
The administration aimed to cut $57 million in state spending for the program — though a federal match means over $100 million worth of services would have been cut in totality — to chip away at a $950 million MassHealth budget shortfall.
The House and Senate did not agree to the funding cut, however, after a wave of rallies at the State House by people with disabilities, seniors, PCAs, health care unions and independent living center staff.
“We haven’t gone away. The program’s as valuable as it always was, and we just want to say the coalition is still active, the program is vital — we hope you don’t cut it this year,” Boston Center for Independent Living Executive Director Bill Henning, who participated in the rallies last year, told the News Service on Monday.
On Tuesday, advocates plan to drop a letter at Healey’s office asking her and Health and Human Services Secretary Kate Walsh to “provide full support” for the PCA program in the fiscal 2026 budget due on Jan. 22.
If you are a reporter looking for information on Health Care For All’s work please contact Laura Giordano at 774-214-6410 or lgiordano@melwoodglobal.com.
