On the monthly Health or Consequences episode of The Codcast, John McDonough of the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and Paul Hattis of the Lown Institute talk with Vicki Pulos, a senior health law attorney at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute. They discuss the massive 2025 federal tax-and-spend law and its consequences for MassHealth and the Connector, what the state can do to limit coverage losses, and immigrant insurance eligibility cuts.
immigrants
Posted inHEALTH CARE AT 20
Our history-making reform extended coverage to immigrants. That is now under threat.
Despite Massachusetts’s inclusive policies, structural racism and legal status discrimination have consistently undermined immigrants’ access to care, creating barriers that persist even for those who have coverage.
Posted inEducation
‘Climate of fear’: Student enrollment declining amid Trump’s immigration crackdown
Overall, public schools across Massachusetts — which has become a target of President Trump’s crackdown on immigration — lost over 15,000 students from fall 2024 to fall 2025, according to state data released in January. That brings total enrollment in the state to its lowest level in over three decades.
Posted inOpinion
Funding was the start – now we need to build out systems to help our immigrant workforce learn English
IN POLITICS, timing can be everything. When the Boston Foundation’s Latino Equity Fund released “The ROI of ESOL,” documenting the economic returns of English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) […]
Posted inOpinion
Immigrants can make us rich, if we let them
In almost every geographic context, immigrants with both high and low levels of education are more likely than non-immigrants to open businesses. Unfortunately, we are not taking full advantage of this economic potential.
Posted inUncategorized
Senate bill would aid crime victims and witnesses with visas
THE STATE SENATE on Monday advanced a bill that would require state agencies and local law enforcement offices to assist immigrants who testify in criminal cases or are victims of human trafficking and domestic […]
Posted inUncategorized
Advocates decry new immigration rules
ADVOCATES FOR IMMIGRANTS on Thursday cast new immigration rules proposed by the Trump administration as a cruel move that will lead thousands of low-income families to shun Medicaid health care […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
SJC blocks local detentions for ICE
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE STATE LAW DOES NOT permit officials to detain immigrants solely at the request of federal immigration officials, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled Monday, putting up a […]
