On Monday, May 12th, staff at Health Care For All (HCFA) joined fellow advocates, experts, providers and consumers in the Massachusetts State House Gardner Auditorium to testify in front of the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing in support of two critical pieces of legislation focused on medical debt (H.1350 and S. 842) and primary care (S.867). If passed, these bills will help address rising medical debt by ensuring more uniform financial assistance policies across hospital systems and increasing investment in primary care.
Testifying means sharing your opinion on an issue and the proposed legislation that aims to solve that issue. Testimony can be shared orally at a public hearing or through a written document submitted to the committee before the bill hearing. Believe it or not, testifying is a civic act that is available to all residents in MA. You don’t need to be an expert, a lobbyist, or a lawyer. Your perspectives and life experiences are critical to the legislative process; you just need the courage to share them. As someone who’s preparing to dive into the testifying process, I wanted to share my perspective as I helped Ashley, our Senior Director of Policy and Government Relations, prepare to testify a few weeks ago.
Step 1: Preparing for testimony
Before you even begin preparing for testimony at the State House, it’s important to understand where the bill stands in the legislative process. Every bill in Massachusetts is assigned to a committee that is responsible for holding a hearing where the public can offer testimony. These hearings are typically open to anyone. You can track the status of a bill and hearing dates through the Massachusetts Legislature’s website.
In this case, the hospital financial assistance policy (FAP) bill was scheduled to be heard by the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing on May 12th. With just under one week to be registered to testify, I reached out to advocacy partners and stakeholders who we work with on medical debt issues to see if they were interested in testifying on a panel with HCFA, which is a common way to provide oral testimony. Ultimately, Ashley testified on behalf of HCFA and was joined by Ernie Davis of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Jason Reis of Health Law Advocates and Tyler, an individual who shared his personal experience with hospital financial assistance.
During oral testimony, every word counts. Each person is given just three minutes to speak about their own unique perspective on the issue at hand. Ashley crafted the oral remarks while I focused on drafting what would become HCFA’s written testimony on the hospital FAP bill. We also worked closely with the bill sponsors’ offices – Representatives Owens and Barber and Senator Comerford – as they crafted their own written and oral testimony.
Step 2: The Hearing Day
Arriving at the Massachusetts State House is an experience in itself. Advocates from around the state participate in hearings and a variety of advocacy events. Depending on the day, there could be a line that goes around the block just to get into the building!
Knowing this, we walked over early. We managed to beat the line that morning and made it through security to the Gardner Auditorium relatively quickly. While Ashley prepared to testify, I corralled our fellow panelists, mingled with other health care stakeholders, and took pictures of Ashley delivering her testimony. You can watch the testimony here, on the Massachusetts legislature’s website. The committee was very engaged with our panel, asking thoughtful questions to better understand the bill itself and issues related to medical debt in MA.
Step 3: Post Hearing and Next Steps
If you thought the process finished as soon as we give testimony, you’d be sorely mistaken. In the days following the hearing, Ashley and I finalized our written testimony and coordinated with the other panelists to deliver all written testimony as a single package to the committee chairs and their staff.
Still, HCFA’s advocacy doesn’t end there. As I write this, we are working with the bill sponsors to determine next steps for encouraging the committee to report the bill out of committee favorably.
Whether your testimony changes a committee member’s vote or not, you should feel proud knowing you’ve participated in one of democracy’s most direct forms of advocacy and the Commonwealth is a better place because of it.
Please feel free to reach out to myself or any member of the HCFA policy team if you’re interested in testifying at the state house in support of HCFA’s legislative priorities. We’d love to hear from you!
Marcella Lampon is a Policy & Project Coordinator at HCFA.
