[Editor's note: The information below was issued in a press statement from the Office of State Rep. Jason Lewis.]

Touting dramatic reductions in health care costs, improved access to health care for all residents, and a boost to local businesses, State Sen. Jamie Eldridge and State Rep. Jason Lewis testified in support of “An Act Establishing Medicare for All in Massachusetts,” a bill they have filed in the state legislature, at a legislative hearing at the State House last week.

Eldridge and Lewis were joined by dozens of health care advocates, physicians, employers, and employee union leaders who came out in support of the bill.

The bill, heard by the Joint Committee on Health Care Finance, would create a single payer health care system for Massachusetts: a universal public insurance plan covering all medically necessary care. This plan would function for residents under 65 much the way Medicare does for residents 65 and older, but without premiums or co-payments.

A similar plan is currently used successfully by many countries around the world and is in the process of being implemented in Vermont.

“I believe that health care is a basic human right, and we must do everything we can to ensure that every Massachusetts resident has access to quality, affordable care,” Lewis said. “We can alleviate the burden of escalating healthcare costs on families and small businesses by instituting a robust single-payer plan here in the Commonwealth.” 

“If Massachusetts is serious about reducing health care costs for families, businesses and state and local governments, we need to stop tinkering at the edges of a broken system and enact a single-payer healthcare system. It’s the only reform that would truly reduce costs in a substantial way, eliminating medical debt and bankruptcies while guaranteeing access to quality, affordable health care as a right for all residents of the Commonwealth,” added Eldridge.

Economist Gerald Friedman, of UMass-Amherst, noted at the hearing that a single-payer system could reduce health care costs by nearly $13 billion a year (or 19%) in Massachusetts. 

Even after expanding coverage to all currently uninsured Massachusetts residents, this would leave savings of over 17.6 percent of current expenditures. These dramatic savings come from eliminating much of the administrative costs incurred by insurers and healthcare providers in our current system. This is money paid by employers and employees in premiums that does not go toward paying for care. 

Friedman also noted that, when added to significant administrative savings within companies, a single-payer system would enhance the competiveness of Massachusetts businesses, potentially adding thousands of additional jobs to the state economy.