About the Federal Inflation Reduction Act: A Letter from AFSCME President Lee Saunders

AFSCME Family:

On Sunday, Senate Democrats passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) – a massive and historic win for working families and the country. This law is also the capstone of two years of progress, from investments in states, cities, towns and schools to the lowest unemployment rate in fifty years to lowering prescription drug costs.  

We expect the House to pass, and President Biden to sign, the Inflation Reduction Act in the coming days. Once it is law, we will provide an update with factsheets addressing the specifics of the new law.

In the meantime, here are a few toplines from the Senate-passed bill:

• Lowering Health Care Costs – The Inflation Reduction Act will make prescription drugs cheaper for seniors by allowing the federal government to negotiate lower Medicare drug prices and penalizing prescription drug corporations for hiking drug prices in Medicare by more than the overall inflation rate. It also will cap out-of-pocket drug costs for seniors under Medicare Part D at $2,000 per year and limit their out-of-pocket insulin costs to $35 per month. For people who buy individual health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act, it will lower health insurance premiums by an average of $800 a year.

• Tackling Climate Change and Improving Energy Security – The law makes historic investments in fighting climate change, improves our energy security and tackles the climate crisis by providing tax credits for and investments in energy projects, thereby creating thousands of new good union jobs and helping lower energy costs.

• Requiring Corporations and the Wealthy to Begin to Pay Their Fair Share – The Inflation Reduction Act requires large corporations to pay a minimum 15% income tax and makes it harder for multinational corporations to avoid paying their fair share of US taxes. It also puts a 1% tax on corporate stock buy backs, which are often used by corporations and their wealthy shareholders to avoid taxes. The law also boosts efforts to ensure corporations and the wealthiest in our society pay the taxes they owe, with no tax increases for families making under $400,000 a year.

While we have made massive progress on the issues that matter most to AFSCME members, our opponents are hellbent on denying Americans of their rights and freedoms. As we head into the fall, it’s up to us to make the contrast clear and make sure AFSCME members know what’s at stake.

Lee Saunders

President

AFSCME

News Items that Matter to SHARE Members

These days, the broadcasts and news feeds are full of information that matter to SHARE. In case you missed them, here are a few particular things that we are keeping our eye on: 

Bonuses for Essential Workers

Governor Baker recently vetoed the part of the COVID Relief Spending Bill that would spend $460 million dollars on essential workers who worked in-person throughout COVID. It appears that Baker does want to deliver the money to essential workers, but he didn’t approve of the “red tape” the legislature had attached to the process. Early January should show us whether the legislature will over-ride Baker’s veto, and who will decide how this money is distributed. (Thank you, SHARE members who voiced your support for hazard pay to your legislators! Nice work!) Read more in the Boston Globe.

Money for Mental Health, Community Hospitals

The COVID Relief Spending Bill also dedicates $260 million for financially stressed hospitals, and $400 million for addiction treatment and related behavioral health services. UMass Memorial serves a large share of Medicaid patients, and increasing the number of Psych beds anywhere in the state could help with the logjam of patients in our ERs and Psych units. We will stay attentive to see how much of this money comes to our hospitals to benefit patients and SHARE members.  

News about the MGB Expansion

Rumor has it that the Mass General’s Independent Cost Analysis was coming out last week. Will it come out this week? We shall see. SHARE members have a big stake in the outcome of MGB’s plans – read more about it here. In addition, the bill that would protect community hospitals by giving the Massachusetts legislature a say about hospital expansions like this MGB proposal passed the House and is moving forward. Thanks to the SHARE members who let their voices be heard to their state reps and senators!   

American Rescue Plan: Meaningful Spending for Americans, But No Hazard Pay

“As part of the American Rescue Plan just signed by President Biden, states, cities and towns will receive $360 billion in flexible funding. This will stop furloughs and layoffs faced by public service workers who have been on the front lines of this pandemic,” says AFSCME President Lee Saunders.

You have probably seen the news that the US government last week passed a massive COVID-19 relief program called the American Rescue Plan. NPR reports that the bill “allocates money for vaccines, schools, small businesses and anti-poverty programs such as an expanded child tax credit that will mean new monthly payments to many parents.”

That’s great news, although we had hoped for more. In January, President Biden’s earlier proposal for the bill called on “private sector employers to provide hazard pay to essential frontline employees, and to apply it retroactively to the start of the pandemic.” One frustrating shortcoming of the bill, however, is that, ultimately, it omitted hazard pay.

Independent research, such as that reported by the Brookings Institute, has shown that hazard pay is  important to frontline workers. We would like to say a special thank you to those members who have worked with SHARE to urge for hazard pay, and who have pressed your legislators for their support, too.

As AFSCME President Lee Saunders describes, the American Rescue Plan benefits us all, especially our local cities and towns and families. We thank all SHARE members who have worked so hard in the face obstacles and dangers to take care of patients, and to keep our hospital running strong. 

In Recent News

There’s a lot to keep up with in the news nowadays. Here’s a summary roundup of recent news stories that are particularly pertinent to SHARE members . . . 

Donations to the Ease Fund 

Kudos to CEO Eric Dickson for committing his full income to the Ease Fund. MassLive reports: “During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Eric Dickson, the CEO of UMass Memorial Health Care, and Dr. Cathy Jones, Dicksons’ wife and a UMass Memorial physician, are donating all of their paychecks to the health care system’s employee assistance fund.” Other hospital leaders, including Chief Administrative Officer Doug Brown, have made similar pledges. 

The Ease Fund is administered and distributed by the Employee Assistance Program to provide aid. The fund is one of their many ways to help employees of UMass Memorial through financial hardship, The EAP website also provides many other COVID-19 related resources.  

Locals Focus on Global Problems 

We’re excited to recognize the work that’s being done in our back yard toward the prevention and treatment of coronavirus. M2D2, a collaboration involving UMass Medical School and UMass Lowell, has shifted much of its focus to potential vaccines, testing research, and medical device design related to COVID-19, according to the UMass Lowell News. 

Meanwhile, the Boston Globe reports that UMass Memorial is one of three hospitals in Massachusetts to receive approval to launch the first US clinical trial of a Japanese flu drug that could be used to treat COVID-19. 

Some Good Financial News at UMass Memorial 

In this recent interview on the Greater Boston television show, UMass Memorial CEO describes our preparedness for COVID-19 here in Central Mass.  

UMass Memorial has had some good fortune and been forward thinking in its approach to keeping its employees paid for the time being. In a recent town-hall meeting, hospital leaders described how last year’s sale of its pharmacy management joint ventures has provided liquid assets to help our hospital respond to the crisis. The funds had not yet been re-invested in the stock market (phew!). The investments in much-needed equipment and facility upgrades will still need to come from somewhere, but that cash-on-hand helps our hospital to be somewhat more nimble than it might otherwise have been.  

In other fortunate financial news, the Telegram reports that “Mapfre Insurance. . . announced a donation of $2.3 million across five Massachusetts-based organizations – including UMass Memorial Health Care and Harrington HealthCare. The insurance company has committed $38 million worldwide to medical providers and communities.” 

COVID-19 and the Financial Health of Hospitals 

The broader news across US hospitals is more grim. The Guardian reports that the United States for-profit healthcare sector has cut thousands of jobs in the wake of the coronavirus. 

Becker’s Hospital Review recently pointed to another disturbing cost-cutting measure, writing that “Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare, which operates 65 hospitals across the U.S., is postponing match payments to employees' 401(k) savings plans to direct more resources toward hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic.”  

Although SHARE was encouraged to see the precedent set as AFSCME Council 93 and Governor Baker came to an agreement about hazard pay for some of their union’s hospital members, we also note this report in Becker’s that Boston-based Partners Healthcare has announced that it will not make hazard pay available to frontline staff. 

To Be Continued. . .  

SHARE will continue to keep its eye on trends, as we keep our focus on the day-to-day life of our own hospital. Right now, this especially includes UMass Memorial’s Labor Pool program. This redeployment system has been another major factor in the hospital’s ability to keep employees on the books. Although the Labor Pool is proving to be a complicated process to implement, and continues to evolve, it’s helping to maintain jobs . . . and to provide help to those areas where the workloads are increasing, where patients and the SHARE members who care for them most need the help.  

As always, thank you for the work you do to keep our hospital, our community, and our union running strong. 

SHARE Roundup: AFSCME ID Cards, PCA Scholarships, and Recent News Items

Hi all! SHARE’s 2020 is off to a strong start. Our union is the largest in our hospital, which is the largest employer in central Massachusetts. And we’re growing. You can see in this roundup some of the reasons that that’s a good thing. We’re particularly excited that over 500 SHARE members are currently in departments with Unit Based Teams.

As a member of SHARE, you’re also a member of AFSCME, which includes over 1.4 million members across the country.

YOUR AFSCME ID

We’ve gotten a number of calls recently about bright green union membership cards that are showing up at home mailboxes. Those are legit! It appears that those of us who are dues-paying members are currently getting new cards for the 2020 year from our parent union, AFSCME. 

The number on that card is valuable toward a number of education, healthcare, and consumer savings programs, many through UnionPlus. If you’ve thrown out your card, or didn’t receive one, feel free to call the SHARE office (508) 929-4020, and we’ll be happy to look up your number for you. For more details, check out this blog post.

UMASS MEMORIAL PCA SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITY

Are you a PCA currently studying to advance your career in nursing? You may qualify for the UMass Memorial PCA Scholarship. 

STAFFING LEVELS at UMass Memorial 

. . . are discussed in this article from the Worcester Business Journal: Leading Healthcare Organizations in Central Mass Cutting Total Executive Pay. Although the headline focuses on cutbacks at the leadership level, the article also points out that UMass Memorial “reduced the number of employees by almost 8%, or nearly 1,200 workers, over a five-year period ending in 2017,” and that red tape is costing hospitals in ways that don’t benefit their patients, employees, or local communities. Most SHARE members know this is true, even without having to know the specific details, since we all feel the effect of the tight staffing levels in departments.

In spite of these trends, SHARE is seeing some growth in its ranks. Our overall numbers our getting bigger, and our union is experiencing particular increases among Medical Office Assistants and in Financial Clearance. Over the past five years, SHARE has gained roughly 250 members, so that there’s currently a total of 2793 of us at UMass Memorial. 

 

The NUMBERS from 2019: UNIONIZATION and MIDDLE-CLASS

The Economic Policy Institute, “a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank created in 1986 to include the needs of low- and middle-income workers in economic policy discussions,” released its top charts of 2019 to paint a portrait of recent economic trends. Their findings show that American workers generally want more ability to unionize, that roughly 40% of employers engage in illegal activities to inhibit unions, and that income inequality increases as union membership declines.