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Here’s how modernizing the licensing of physician assistants will help Mass. compete for federal dollars
MASSACHUSETTS HAS LONG benefited from its reputation as a national leader in health care policy and delivery. That leadership, however, also brings fiscal exposure. Because the Commonwealth expanded Medicaid earlier and more comprehensively than most states, it is particularly vulnerable as federal Medicaid financing erodes and discretionary funding plays a larger role in health care financing. In this environment, the state must do all it can to maximize its ability to secure federal health care funding. One meaningful step — rarely discussed outside workforce policy circles — would be to modernize regulations and licensing requirements for physician assistants. Here’s why…
Can Healey’s health care affordability push actually move the needle?
For now, the announcement of the new working group offers promise, not proof. Whether it delivers real affordability will depend less on process and far more on what happens if meaingful recommendations hit the Legislature.
Why Massachusetts must get serious about state spending
Massachusetts is firmly in a parochial phase, reflected in policy choices over the past decade that have led to job losses, rising living costs, and outmigration of talent and investment.
What ICE is doing is abhorrent. But here’s why canceling the state contract to house its detainees might not be the right thing to do.
As with all policies, it is important not to make decisions from afar. We must listen to people who are actually impacted.
The state can accelerate the move away from natural gas with one step
The Department of Public Utilities faces a choice: proactively lead the next transition, as it did before, or let gas utilities trap customers in a failing system.
Sensible reforms can make solar a bigger part of the answer to the energy affordability crisis
Breaking this cycle requires unleashing local solar and storage so we can generate affordable electricity right here in Massachusetts. Solar and batteries keep getting cheaper, while the cost to supply and deliver gas is only rising.
Boston’s broken land use system blocks the homes we desperately need
Rather than reflecting some sort of democratic ideal of local control, Boston’s process empowers those who already have housing to block housing for those who do not.
Amid severe weather, Massachusetts must invest in protecting nature for all
Trees, parks, and green spaces are not just nice to have—they are critical, low-cost infrastructure that provide nature-based solutions to bolster climate resilience.
As AI transforms the economy, Massachusetts needs a plan for its workforce
Technology has always changed work. What makes this moment different is the speed, scale, and breadth of change, and the absence of a coordinated response. If we fail to act, we are not witnessing inevitable progress; we are permitting displacement by design.
The top 5 CommonWealth Beacon commentary topics in 2025
Thoughtful CommonWealth Beacon opinion pieces offered a stark contrast to a year of oxygen-sucking pronouncements by a president whose coarsening of public debate commanded nearly nonstop headlines.
Voters said no to one-size-fits-all tests. The governor’s graduation framework can’t let them go.
Piling multiple layers of new requirements on our students will create new obstacles rather than providing opportunities for them to increase their life skills and pursue their individual goals.
Instead of a war on poverty, we wage war on the poor
EVERY SAFETY NET in this country has been stitched with holes just wide enough for many of us to slip through. We’ve recently had a front row seat to this playing out again. From the billions cut from Medicaid in the sweeping tax and spending bill enacted last summer to the use of SNAP food assistance as a bargaining chip during the government shutdown, the most vulnerable among us continue to be political collateral. Poverty is once again being weaponized. And poor people, particularly Black and brown families, are once again the target. There has always been a war on…
Beacon Hill’s new rules are good. They should follow them.
Everyday people–and not just advocates deep in the trenches–are seeing that things need to change. Â
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