Report: Home insurance rates yield high profits, get little scrutiny

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Press Release

A report by the State Senate lambasts the process of setting Massachusetts home insurance rates and calls for immediate changes to state law to protect residents.

In 2015 the Massachusetts Division of Insurance considered, and granted, requests by several of the state’s biggest insurers to raise their rates on homeowners coverage by as much as 9%. Yet neither the public, nor state legislators, nor insurance experts in the state Attorney General’s office, were informed of the requests.

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Marking the 50th anniversary of a win for gender equality

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In 1966 Roberta “Bobbi” Gibb became the first woman to finish the Boston Marathon.  The rules restricted the competition to men, but Bobbi jumped in at the starting line to join the male runners.  She completed the course in an impressive 3 hours and 21 minutes.  To mark the 50th anniversary of her trail-blazing, the State Senate honored her.  Here, with Sen. Jehlen, Sen. Lewis, our honoree, and Sen. Lovely.

running

Bedford High School students go to Beacon Hill to represent METCO

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Bedford Minuteman

“These kids are really the heroes of their own education,” Barrett said. “They get up much earlier than their peers at a time when research shows students should be sleeping in. I am blown away by the quiet passion of these students.”

Read the article about METCO

People with disabilities testify against exclusion from proposed health Office

senmikeb
Press Release

An initiative to reduce health disparities linked to race and ethnicity should be widened to include people with disabilities, according to experts and self-advocates who turned out en masse at the State House.

A proposed new Office of Health Equity is directed explicitly to work in tandem with the existing Massachusetts Health Disparities Council, already tasked with a three-part focus on race, ethnicity and disability.  Yet recent legislative action, little noticed, seeks to exclude people with disabilities from the scope of the new Office, de-aligning its mission from that of the Council.

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Librarians educate legislators

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Each year, Massachusetts residents borrow 6.5 million items that happen to be unavailable at their local libraries.  This, thanks to resource sharing among communities.  I recently chatted about funding for this initiative and others with Sudbury librarians Megan Statza Warren, Esme Green and Marie Royea.

Sudbury Librarians 1

Taking on big money and environmental harm

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The League of Women Voters does terrific work, pushing back against global warming and unlimited money in politics.  Local chapters came to the State House recently to advance these causes.  Above, with team Concord-Carlisle; below, with the group from Waltham.LWV - collage

Keep kids out of detention

senmikeb
The Boston Globe

A budget priority of mine: The detention diversion program run by the Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps is an initiative to prevent young people from re-entering the juvenile justice system. Its community-based support includes 24/7 case management — coordination with probation staff, face-to-face communication and curfew checks and weekly family check-ins.

0311webmarco

Read the article about juvenile detention

Health equity push expands to include disability and gender

senmikeb
Press Release

An initiative to reduce health disparities linked to race and ethnicity has widened to include women and people with disabilities, thanks to a bill just passed by the State Senate.

Health disparities are gaps in access to care or in actual outcomes that confront certain groups disproportionately.  As they relate to disabilities, health disparities include inaccessible doctors’ offices, ill-equipped examination rooms and frustrating communications barriers.

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