Experts: Labor crunch threatens state’s growth

With an aging workforce and a low unemployment rate, Massachusetts faces a tight labor market, creating a dynamic that could limit the state’s future economic growth. That was one of the main messages economists delivered to lawmakers on Wednesday, at an annual Ways and Means Committee hearing that launches the state budget-writing process. Economists who testified projected a slower revenue growth rate than in the past two years, offering estimates that ranged from 0.8 percent to 3.5 percent.

Revenue Commissioner Christopher Harding characterized the Massachusetts unemployment rate as “impressively low,” forecasting a rate of 2.8 percent this fiscal year, and said that job growth may come at a slower pace than it has in the past.

“This could drive up wages, this could do all kinds of things that have a direct impact on business here in the commonwealth, because there’s a limited talent pool in order to achieve the growth these businesses want to achieve,” Harding said, after Sen. Cindy Friedman asked if there was any cause for concern with such a low unemployment rate.

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Deal reached to improve health care access for children

The conference committee reconciling the different House and Senate bills related to children’s health and wellness filed its report with the House clerk after wrapping up a press conference called to announce a deal agreed to by five of the panel’s six members. The sixth member, Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, ultimately signed on as well before the bill (H 4210) was filed.

“In no way, shape or form do we believe that this is the end of the work that we need to do,” Friedman said, adding that some Senate approved measures relating to DCF were omitted from the final bill “in deference to” the House’s ongoing effort to pull together legislation addressing the department.

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Talk of the Town: Cindy Friedman Legislative Update – October 2019

State Senator Cindy Friedman provides pays her Legislative Update on “Talk of the Town” in Arlington. She talks about the current budget, including additional funding heading Arlington’s way for general and special education, roads and other infrastructure, as well as specific earmarks she secured in support of a couple of important community organizations.

Massachusetts Senate zeroes in on drug costs

Massachusetts Senate leaders introduced their entry into the debate last week, teeing up the Pharmaceutical Access, Cost and Transparency Act for floor debate Thursday.

The legislation seeks to broaden the powers of the commission to look at any drugs costing $50,000 a year or more or any “drug whose cost exceeds an HPC value for that drug.” “You will see a public process around cost and proposed value,” said Senator Cindy Friedman, cochair of the Health Care Financing Committee.

What matters on Main Street is that no one should have to cross our northern border to buy life-saving drugs. That no one should try to whip up a batch of insulin in the basement. That consumers know that the drugs they and their insurers are paying for will be assessed for both cost and value.

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Massachusetts Senate unanimously approves bill targeting high drug prices

BOSTON — The Massachusetts Senate on Thursday unanimously agreed to impose new oversight on the pharmaceutical industry and cap consumer costs for insulin.

The 40-0 vote drew praise from the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, which said the bill “contains necessary provisions for making the costs of prescription drugs more transparent, regulating pharmacy benefit managers and requiring that pharmacists help consumers find the lowest prices possible for prescription drugs.”

Sen. Cindy Friedman, an Arlington Democrat who co-chairs the Health Care Financing Committee, said in a statement that the bill “will bring us one step closer toward addressing rising costs within our healthcare system that continually impact patients’ ability to access the care they need.”

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More steps needed to ensure gas system’s safety

In the next few weeks the Legislature has a chance to make all of us who live in communities served by natural gas feel more reassured about the safety of the pipes that run under our streets and into our homes and provide us with heat, hot water and energy for cooking.

As the National Transportation Safety Board made clear in its findings on the explosions that tore through the Merrimack Valley a year ago, safety comes from adequate oversight of our natural gas system, and the use of skilled, experienced workers on that system.

While the state has taken some steps in the wake of the tragedy to tighten up oversight of the natural gas infrastructure, more is needed. That’s why, with the co-sponsorship of Sen. Cindy Friedman and the support of the 1,600 gas workers in the New England Gas Workers Alliance, we are seeking passage of an omnibus bill taking even more steps for a safe gas system.

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Billerica lawmaker breaks down bill to create ‘safe-consumption site’ pilot program

“With lawmakers working to find not only creative but effective ways to combat the opioid crisis that still has a vice grip on not only Massachusetts but the nation, state Sen. Cindy Friedman, D-Arlington, is making progress towards possibly bringing the first safe-injection site program in the country to Massachusetts.

Friedman, who is the state senator for Billerica, recently sat down to speak about proposed program, to shed light on what could become a first for opioid treatment in the United States.

First, Friedman said if passed a program like this would not be foisted on a city or town. A community would have to express interest in the program coming to them. She said while she hasn’t directly worked with anyone in Billerica on this, larger municipalities such as Cambridge and Somerville have expressed interest.”

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Senate plan, like the governor’s, aims to further bring down drug costs

The Massachusetts Health Policy Commission has long operated in the background of the state’s health care economy, conducting routine check-ups of the costs of care, and monitoring the vital signs of the region’s largest players. But recent policy proposals from both Gov. Charlie Baker and state Senate would give the watchdog agency power to try and influence the cost of prescription drugs, by questioning drug manufacturers and publicly shaming and coercing them into lowering the price of the most expensive products.

“What we will be looking at is what that cost is, and whether that cost is in line with a proposed value,” said State Sen. Cindy Friedman, who co-chairs the Committee on Health Care Financing and helped craft the Senate’s health care proposal unveiled last week. “If the Health Policy Commission finds cost is not in line with proposed value, then the HPC would engage in a process with a manufacturer to reduce that cost.”

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Senate leaders to offer antidote for high drug costs

Massachusetts Senate leaders on Thursday will propose new legislation they say targets the high cost of prescription drugs, giving state officials the power to study and propose what they consider fair values for expensive medicines.

The bill — the Senate’s first major foray into a broader debate on Beacon Hill over health care — also would cap out-of-pocket costs for insulin, the lifesaving drug used by many patients with diabetes. Patients who now may be paying thousands of dollars annually for insulin would pay no more than $25 per month for the drug under the Senate plan, said Senator Cindy F. Friedman, cochairwoman of the Legislature’s Committee on Health Care Financing

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