(BOSTON 6/23/2025) — Last week, the Massachusetts Senate passed a supplemental budget that directs funding to hospitals and community health centers throughout the state confronting rising costs while working to serve vulnerable populations.
The $532 million bill, S.2529, includes $174 million for fiscally strained acute care hospitals and $35 million for community health centers facing financial challenges. Community health centers – many serving residents who live in low-income areas and are uninsured or underinsured – were on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to deliver essential care that is increasingly under threat from federal policies.
Language in the Senate legislation ensures that state funding will go to the hospitals and care centers specifically providing a high percentage of services to vulnerable populations.
An amendment introduced by Senator Michael Moore extends the existing The Special Legislative Commission to Study and Investigate Emerging Firearm Technology that he currently co-chairs with Representative Kate Lipper-Garabedian. The Commission is tasked with studying new firearm safety technologies such as microstamping and firearm personalization, their large-scale feasibility, and the constitutionality of any laws that may incentivize or mandate their use in a report to the Massachusetts Legislature. If signed into law, the amendment will require the report be submitted to the Legislature by July 31st, 2025.
“This bill will help support Massachusetts’ gold-standard hospital systems and allow them to continue offering lifesaving care to patients regardless of whether they have health insurance. The Commonwealth is home to world-class healthcare, and efforts like this will help ensure that does not change, regardless of what funding is revoked by the Trump Administration or Congress,” said Senator Michael Moore (D-Millbury). “I’m also thrilled that my amendment extending the Emerging Firearms Technology Commission was passed during Senate debate, allowing the Commission to continue its research into how we can better protect our communities from gun violence without infringing on Bay Staters’ constitutional rights.”
In addition to general hospital and community health support, the bill specifically allocates $1.2 million to Western Massachusetts hospitals, directs $5.8 million to benefits for Massachusetts Veterans, provides $60 million for home care services, and funds grants to cities and towns for extraordinary medical costs.
The legislation was reported out of the Committee on Ways and Means on June 12, 2025, with 15 members voting to advance the bill and no votes in opposition. The committee vote is available on the Legislature’s website, along with a full summary of the bill as drafted by the committee and a recording of the Senate’s livestreamed debate on 66 amendments.
The bill is a partial report on a measure that passed the House in late May. A version having passed both chambers of the Legislature, the Senate and House will now work to reconcile differences before sending a final version to the Governor’s desk for her signature.
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