A health care leader from the grassroots
A health care leader from the grassroots by CommonWealth Beacon
Apr 08, 2019•26 min
The Codcast
Tune into spirited debate, local stories, and insightful analyses with The Codcast. Hosted each week by a CommonWealth Beacon reporter, the half-hour policy podcast delves into the heart of Massachusetts’s most pressing and intriguing topics. Hear newsmakers, historians, and policy experts tackle statewide housing struggles, immigration policies, little-known histories, surprising political fights, and even take to the sea to visit rising offshore wind turbines.
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Episodes
Immigrant voices on immigration reform
Everyone has an opinion on the polarizing topic of immigration reform, but rarely do immigrants get to be in the presence of key decision makers who determine their fates. Student Estefany Pineda and community organizer Jose Palma got that opportunity recently, when Pineda attended the State of the Union as a guest of US Rep. Ayanna Pressley, and Palma testified in front of the House Judiciary Committee. Pineda is a recipient of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program...
Apr 01, 2019•30 min
H-P chief: Medicare for all debate is good
The chief executive of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care doesn’t want the government to take over the entire health insurance business – at least until after he retires – but he sees some advantages to the movement seeking an expansion of Medicare so that government-backed insurance covers everyone. For one, Harvard Pilgrim CEO Michael Carson thinks Medicare for All – a rallying cry among many Democrats – is part of an important discussion to have. For another, Carson said, the best plan is a middle w...
Mar 25, 2019•32 min
Councilor Wu, Paul Regan dissect the MBTA fare hike
Michelle Wu and Paul Regan took very different positions on the MBTA fare increase, but they both agree on the big picture needs of the transit authority. Regan, the executive director of the MBTA Advisory Board, said on CommonWealth’s Codcast that the $29 million derived from the fare increase approved by the Fiscal and Management Control Board last Monday is needed just to cover a small wage increase for union employees, not to mention rising costs for commuter rail, paratransit service, and o...
Mar 18, 2019•31 min
Special LIVE Edition: Alice Paul still resonates in today’s Boston
On a special live edition of the Codcast, Jesse Mermell and Jennifer Nassour bridge the gap between women in the early 1900s, who were protesting for the right to vote, and today, when the struggle goes on in a different way. In the first segment of the podcast, Mermell and Nassour interview Tina Cassidy, the author of a book about Alice Paul, a woman who not only led the first women’s march in US history but who changed stereotypes about feminism by putting an attractive woman on a white horse ...
Mar 13, 2019•1 hr 10 min
Osgood details mayor’s transportation initiatives
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh made a splash last week by announcing a bunch of new transportation initiatives, some of which were set in motion by the advocacy of Boston City Councilor Michelle Wu. In a speech to the annual meeting of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau on Thursday, Walsh called for reducing the speed limit on neighborhood streets to 20 miles per hour, providing free T passes to every Boston student at public and private schools in grades 7 through 12, creating two new dedicated bus...
Mar 11, 2019•36 min
Nursing home industry sounds alarm
The Massachusetts nursing home industry says inadequate state funding caused 20 facilities to close last year and is putting another 39 at risk of going out of business this year. Tara Gregorio, the president of the Massachusetts Senior Care Association, and Naomi Prendergast, president and CEO of D’Youville Life and Wellness Community in Lowell, sounded the alarm on the Codcast, saying rates provided by MassHealth are way too low because they are based on cost benchmarks from 2007. There are 39...
Mar 04, 2019•25 min
Expanding our view of health
When it comes to the state of our health, there is a glaring disconnect in the US, says Sandro Galea. We spend far more on health care per capita than any country, yet we’re far less healthy than those in many other developed countries as measured by all sorts of indicators, including life expectancy. Our cutting-edge new medical treatments and drugs are wonderful, says the dean of the Boston University School of Public Health. But he says we are focusing on them to the exclusion of all sorts of...
Feb 25, 2019•33 min
Are you tired of electoral spoilers?
Adam Friedman calls it being Nadered. In the 2012 congressional race in the 6th District, Democrat John Tierney won with 46 percent of the vote. Republican Richard Tisei came in second with 45 percent of the vote. Libertarian Dan Fishman was way out of the running, but he may have been the deciding factor in the race as he garnered 4 percent of the vote. In the 2010 election for governor, Democrat Deval Patrick emerged victorious with 48 percent of the vote. Republican Charlie Baker came in seco...
Feb 19, 2019•28 min
The campaign money man
Michael Sullivan follows the money. Sullivan is the director of the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance, which monitors and publicizes how candidates for office in Massachusetts raise and spend their campaign cash. He makes sure politicians follow the rules, and in some cases he has to set the rules. He recently proposed a new rule covering expenditures by unions on behalf of political candidates. Labor unions are currently allowed to give no more than $15,000, or 10 percent of their ...
Feb 11, 2019•24 min
The life (and death) stories that drive Andrea Campbell
Andrea Campbell’s twin brother Andre died seven years ago while awaiting trial in the custody of the state Department of Correction, and she says that has everything to do with how she wound up on the Boston City Council. The 36-year-old Mattapan resident says government needs to share more stories. By that she means we can often gain greater clarity about how to approach public policy issues through stories that put a human face on the often dry matters of city and state. Campbell, who is start...
Feb 04, 2019•35 min
Salvucci, Aloisi liken Pollack to Sargent
TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY Stephanie Pollack is being likened by two of her predecessors to former governor Frank Sargent for her decision to replace the elevated section of the Massachusetts Turnpike between Boston University and Allston with an at-grade version. Sargent 50 years ago called a halt to the proposed inner belt highway that would have continued the state’s auto-centric approach to transportation and carved up many of Boston’s neighborhoods. On the Codcast hosted by TransitMatters mem...
Jan 28, 2019•32 min
Dreyfus highlights Blue Cross experiments
Andrew Dreyfus, the CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, is excited about a series of initiatives the state’s largest health insurer is pursuing to improve care while simultaneously treating patients in less costly settings. One initiative, a pilot project with South Shore Hospital, rewards the facility if it succeeds in admitting fewer patients and doing fewer procedures. Dreyfus, appearing on the “Health or Consequences” Codcast with Paul Hattis, an associate professor at the Tufts ...
Jan 22, 2019•37 min
Getting to yes on new education funding
State leaders appear to be serious about finally passing new legislation this year that would update the state’s education funding formula for K-12 schools. But exactly what would a new funding bill look like? Tracy Novick of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees and Liam Kerr of Democrats for Education Reform tackle that question on The Codcast. Their spirited conversation offers a preview of the debate that’s likely to unfold on Beacon Hill.
Jan 14, 2019•36 min
Rules reform battle in House not over
Two first-term legislators who tried unsuccessfully last week to change the way the speaker is selected say the fight for rules reform in the House is far from over. Rep. Maria Robinson of Framingham and Rep. Patrick Kearney of Scituate said on the Codcast that a broader rules reform package is in the works, and one of their chief concerns is with the way rules are routinely suspended in the House.
Jan 07, 2019•30 min
Transportation advocates list priorities
Three leading transportation advocates – Jim Aloisi of TransitMatters, Chris Dempsey of Transportation for Massachusetts, and Stacy Thompson of the Livable Streets Alliance – ring in the new year on The Codcast with a discussion about priorities. One of the biggest is putting a price on transportation carbon and using the proceeds to invest in expanded transit options, cleaner vehicles, and climate resiliency. Massachusetts and eight other states plus the District of Columbia plan to spend the n...
Jan 02, 2019•28 min
A Transit Holiday Season
Jim Aloisi likes to write a holiday verse every year for CommonWealth, and this year he went all out. This year’s ditty is a clever take on linking the Red and Blue Lines. You can read/sing it yourself (to the tune of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer) or you can listen to Aloisi and Chris Dempsey, the director of Transportation for Massachusetts, belt it out for you. Enjoy, and have a happy holiday season!
Dec 24, 2018•1 min
For 2018, it's a wrap
Republican Jenn Nassour and Democrat Jesse Mermell tee up a year-end conversation for the final 2018 installment of "Disagreeing Agreeably" on the Codcast. To help them, they brought in guests who lean left, political consultant Wilnelia Rivera, and right, Paul Craney of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance. Asked for a one-word description of politics for the year that was, their guests had starkly contrasting takes. For Craney, it was "boring," as he pointed to the big statewide races that held l...
Dec 21, 2018•29 min
Sudders talks health care
What’s it like to be in charge of nearly half the state budget? Extraordinarily humbling,” said Marylou Sudders. But don’t confuse humbling with cautious indecision or lack of tenacity. Gov. Charlie Baker’s health and human services secretary has a reputation for strong leadership and a social worker’s commitment to the enormous range of state programs she oversees, led by the Medicaid program that delivers health care coverage to 1.8 million state residents. Sudders said she is on board for a s...
Dec 17, 2018•30 min
'Beat the Press' celebrates 20 years
Emily Rooney, who is celebrating her 20th year hosting Beat the Press on WGBH, says the biggest change she's witnessed over that time period has been in the news-gathering business itself. In television, the network and local news shows have narrowed their focus and range. Locally, she says, the focus increasingly is on traffic, weather, and "two-bit crime coverage. Anchors, once known by their first names, are now barely known at all." "Everything looks exactly the same and they've got these fu...
Dec 10, 2018•22 min
Aiello on the state of the T, new revenues
The head of the MBTA’s oversight board says the hoped-for transformation of the transit agency has a long way to go yet. “We’re still at the very beginning,” says Joseph Aiello, the chair of the MBTA’s Fiscal and Management Control Board. He says the collapse of the T during the winter of 2015 exposed the sorry state of the agency. “We were probably in as dark a hole as you can possibly be in,” he says. But Aiello is not all gloom and doom. He says the agency is moving ahead with an overhaul of ...
Dec 03, 2018•37 min
How to combat displacement in Roxbury
Some people may have been taken aback by the overflow crowd of 350 people who showed up earlier this month for a Boston City Council hearing in Roxbury to hear concerns about displacement. Kim Janey was not one of them. “I was not surprised at all,” said Janey, the district city councilor who represents Roxbury along with parts of Dorchester, the South End, and the Fenway. Janey, who sponsored the November 13 hearing, said concerns about displacement have reached a fever pitch in Roxbury, where ...
Nov 26, 2018•30 min
Rep. O'Day discusses National Grid legislation
Rep. O'Day discusses National Grid legislation by CommonWealth Beacon
Nov 19, 2018•18 min
Charter school lesson plans
It feels like an odd time to be celebrating charter school success in Massachusetts, but that’s just what Cara Candal does in a new book that not only touts the schools, but telegraphs a bold claim about them in its title. The Fight for the Best Charter Public Schools in the Nation, published by the charter-friendly public think tank Pioneer Institute where Candal is a senior fellow, leaves no doubt about the author’s view of the independently operated, but publicly funded, schools that were fir...
Nov 13, 2018•30 min
Making getting to Logan easier
Making getting to Logan easier by CommonWealth Beacon
Nov 05, 2018•37 min
Nassour, Mermell talk housing, campaigns
Republican Jennifer Nassour and Democrat Jesse Mermell call their version of the Codcast “disagreeing agreeably,” but there is no disagreement on this pre-election edition. They talk about the shortage of housing in Massachusetts with Rachel Heller of the Citizens Housing and Planning Association and Paul McMorrow of Mass Housing, and they discuss campaign camaraderie with Sarah Groh, the campaign manager for Ayanna Pressley, and Republican political consultant Matthew Sisk. Remember to vote on ...
Nov 03, 2018•32 min
Everybody talks about transportation
Mark Twain once famously observed, “Everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it.” The irony is, of course, there’s nothing much you can do about it but grumble. That is perhaps where we are at with transportation, especially public transit, here in Massachusetts. The MBTA is getting a lot of attention in the gubernatorial race, with Democrat Jay Gonzalez constantly trying to hang the decaying system around Gov. Charlie Baker’s neck. But for all the talk, it doesn’t look l...
Oct 31, 2018•32 min
Natl. Grid says lockout all about its customers
The Massachusetts president of National Grid defends the nearly four-month lockout of 1,250 workers by saying the company is doing what it needs to do to bring its costs in line and protect customers from excessive charges. It’s an interesting line of reasoning at a time when union leaders and their supporters are saying the company is putting profits ahead of public safety. To buttress their point, the unions and their allies regularly note that National Grid is a British company that earned mo...
Oct 29, 2018•26 min
A question of money and speech
All the talk in Massachusetts about the referendums before voters next month focuses on Questions 1 and 3, with little acknowledgement that there's a number missing in between. However, unlike the other ballot questions which seek to create or maintain state laws, Question 2 would launch that most typical Bay State of creatures, a commission to talk about changing the US Constitution. But while the referendum is about process, the underlying motive is the hot button issue of campaign finance and...
Oct 22, 2018•28 min
Bellotti going strong at 95
Frank Bellotti is 95, the kind of 95 you'd want to be if you live to be 95. Trim, tan, sharp of mind (but perhaps slower of gait), Bellotti joined me recently to record a CommonWealth Codcast. He is, I'm pretty sure, the oldest living former statewide office holder - he was lieutenant governor from 1963 to 1965, and attorney general for 12 years, from 1975 to 1987. Most people today probably remember him as the former AG, a role that was perfectly suited to this progressive libertarian whose per...
Oct 15, 2018•36 min
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