Patrick signs budget, tries to save immigrant health coverage

BOSTON — Gov. Deval Patrick signed the state budget for fiscal year 2011 on Wednesday but he said he will ask the legislature to allow the Bridge program — which provides state-subsidized health insurance to thousands of legal immigrants — to continue to operate if funds are found.
    “I am signing a $27.6 billion budget for Fiscal Year 2011,” he said at a press conference he held to discuss his signature of the budget. “I have also by amendment proposed a plan to continue health care coverage for 24,000 fully-documented, tax-paying immigrants currently enrolled in the Bridge Program for at least the next six months. If Congress approves additional federal stimulus, those residents would be covered for the remainder of the fiscal year. In any event, they are covered under national health care reform.”
    The budget, which went in effect yesterday, would eliminate health care funding for legal, tax-paying Massachusetts immigrants at the end of August.
    The Bridge program was developed last summer in response to the legislature’s elimination last June of coverage for an entire class of legal immigrants, primarily including those who have had their “green cards” (Legal Permanent Residency) for less than five years.
    Through some creative cost savings and the allocation of excess cigarette tax revenues, the governor calculates the program could continue for at least six months, or until the end of December.
    “The governor and his administration seem to agree with immigrants and their allies that the Bridge program is not a permanent solution to the plight of these immigrants,” reacted Tambouret Nicole Tambouret, State Policy Director at the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA), after the press conference. “But we all need the legislature to approve his plan to continue the program through the summer and fall. Not only will it provide six extra months of essential coverage, it also allows us all time to find a way to extend the program until that day when every Massachusetts resident can receive the quality, affordable health care they deserve, no matter where they’re from.”
    The State House barred these immigrants from the Commonwealth Care program, citing federal law, which prohibits the group from receiving reimbursement for Medicaid funding. The crisis led the governor to work with the legislature to devise Commonwealth Care Bridge, which began enrolling immigrants at the end of last summer.
    “We at MIRA join all the other groups in the ACT Coalition to commend Governor Patrick for his speedy and creative response to this crisis,” said Tambouret. “The governor has come up with the plan and the funds; now the legislature needs to act quickly to pass the proposed bill, which will give tens of thousands of hard-working, tax paying immigrants a chance to breathe easier as we all work to craft a permanent solution to this crisis.”
    Gov. Patrick said the new budget contains no new taxes and reflects “the difficult economic times.” As a result he vetoed $457.6 million of the Legislature’s proposed budget. Local aid and state support for public schools have been reduced 4 percent and 3.1 percent, respectively.
    “The pain is widespread and will require state agencies, cities and towns, not-for-profits and working families across the state to do more with less,” he said. “If Congress in the end approves the extension of FMAP (Federal Medical Assistance Percentages), unemployment insurance and other supports that people need in a time of economic distress like this, we will be able to restore many of these difficult cuts, and I will file a supplemental budget accordingly.”