Ella Adams
State House News Service
Senate healthcare point person Sen. Cindy Friedman said Monday that the Senate is "working on" an abortion-related bill and that she's "hopeful" the House is looking at primary care legislation as regularly-scheduled formal sessions wrap up this week.
"We're looking at the reproductive issues, and they're looking at, I think — I'm being told, I don't know, really, truly don't know, that they're looking at the primary care stuff," Friedman, Health Care Financing Committee co-chair, told the News Service.
Healthcare is shaping up to be a late-July focus on Beacon Hill but no one is really sure how things will unfold.
The House on July 22 passed a bill (H 5595) by a vote of 119-33 that loosens restrictions on abortions that can be performed after 24 weeks of gestation. The bill has not yet reached Senate Ways and Means.
The Senate on June 18 passed primary care reform legislation (S 3141) designed to create a much higher spending target for the sector without raising overall healthcare costs or premiums. Healthcare entities that don't meet a gradual 15% target could face financial penalties under the bill, which also proposes a standardized capitated payment model to replace the traditional fee-for-service structure.
House Speaker Ron Mariano has expressed skepticism about the Senate's primary care bill, but on July 15 said he's got his eye on "prescription drug stuff." He confirmed last week that prescription drugs are still on his radar, along with "a number of other things" that he said were "undecided."
"Very hopeful that'll come out," Friedman said of the primary care bill, which now sits in House Ways and Means, "and very hopeful that we'll be doing something around the issues of women who are having trouble getting abortions in late-stage pregnancy when they or their fetus are really in trouble."
When asked about being "hopeful" on both bills, she said, "Yeah, and we're working on the abortion one."
"We'll see what happens," she added.
If lawmakers plan to shuttle the abortion bill into conference, the Senate must pass its version of the bill by Friday. Another alternative would be for the Senate to hew closely to the House bill and move legislation to Gov. Maura Healey this week.
If the chamber doesn't pass the bill this week, supporters run the risk that it could be blocked it from being taken up during informal sessions via procedural maneuvers allowed under legislative rules.
The Senate plans to meet on Wednesday in an informal session, and then in a formal session Thursday to vote on its redrafted public records reform bill (S 3200). The House passed its version (H 5469) on June 3, and has a formal session slated for Wednesday with no indication of what representatives will take up.