According to J.J. Bartlett, president of the Massachusetts Fishing Partnership Health Plan (FPHP), that program has saved the state and federal government money since its implementation by allowing people to take care of medical issues before they become serious problems, and by offering coverage for large medical bills that might otherwise end up being paid by the government when the patients defaulted.
Bartlett said he was disappointed that the provision did not make it into the MSA before its passage last week.
“I spent the beginning of the week reading article after article about the passage of the MSA, and every story I saw talked about the need for healthy fishing stocks, but I couldn’t find a single mention about the need for healthy fishing families,” he said.
However, according to Bartlett, the fight is just beginning, and a lot of progress has been made.
“I think we’ve made tremendous headway,” Bartlett said. “Over the past year we’ve built a national coalition of fishermen and fishing organizations, and so what we need to do now is continue to build on that coalition. There’s something that no matter what gear sector, no matter what port you fish out of around the country, access to health care coverage is a serious issue for fishing families. Fishing families are three to four times more likely to be uninsured than the average U.S. citizen.”
Bartlett said that he is not sure how the language got dropped from the MSA before the final vote.
“We’re still doing the reconnaissance on it and talking to the folks it went through in the last week. We were working up until the last day trying to get it in, going back and forth, and I don’t have a good answer for that at this point.
“I do know that Rep. Frank was a huge supporter, of course, and drafted the legislative language in support of this,” Bartlett said. “Sen. Kennedy and the entire Massachusetts delegation have been incredibly supportive since the beginning of our plan in the mid-1990s. They’ll continue to work, and I’ve been real pleased that the fishing organizations from around the country are making a difference. We’re starting to hear support from legislators from around the country for this initiative. So I’m real encouraged as we go forward over the next year.”
Bartlett said that the grass-roots level campaign should continue, on both the state and national level. “I say talk to anyone who will listen. Nationally I think there is a real power in having fishermen from around the country come together. Nationally, if fishing organizations can agree on an issue, that’s a lot of people that can get together.”
Congressman Don Young can be faxed at (202) 225-0425, Senator Ted Stevens at (202) 224-2354, and Lisa Murkowski at (202) 224-5301.
Cristy Fry has commercial fished in Homer since 1978. She also designs and builds gear for the industry. She currently longlines for halibut and gillnets salmon in upper Cook Inlet aboard the F/V Realist. She can be reached at cristy-fry@excite.com.
An effort was made to insert a provision into the MSA that would have provided funding for research, planning, implementation and ongoing operations of a federal health care plan for fishing families. Modeled after a successful system that has been in place in their state since 1997, the language was originally introduced by Massachusetts Reps. Barney Frank and John Tierney.
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