State Representative Lipper-Garabedian Joins the Legislature to Approve Support for Fiscally-Strained Health Care Institutions
Bill Directs $234 Million in Aid to Hospitals and Community Health Centers Around Massachusetts
(BOSTON—9/18/2025) State Representative Kate Lipper-Garabedian (D-Melrose) joined the Massachusetts Legislature today to enact a supplemental budget bill that prioritizes care for the state’s most vulnerable populations by strategically targeting support to fiscally-strained hospitals and community health centers.
The legislation, H.4530, addresses a widening funding gap in the Health Safety Net program, which pays acute care hospitals and community health centers for necessary medical care for low-income, uninsured, and underinsured Massachusetts residents. Reckless federal policies and funding shortfalls have exacerbated the fiscal strain on these vital institutions that serve people most in need.
This legislative response provides critical relief in the face of an unfriendly federal government and economic headwinds, distributing aid based on criteria that directs funding to vulnerable populations most in need of assistance.
“This legislation directs key investments to aid local hospitals and community health centers across Massachusetts that provide quality care to all, contrasting the Trump administration’s actions to defund our public health systems,” said State Representative Kate Lipper-Garabedian (D-Melrose). “Community hospitals like MelroseWakefield are bedrocks in their communities, and I'm glad that this legislation directs an additional $792,534 into the 32nd Middlesex District, reflecting the Commonwealth’s longstanding commitment to ensuring everyone has access to affordable health care.”
“This funding will help to ensure that financially strained hospitals and community health centers can continue to serve patients across Massachusetts,” said House Speaker Ronald J. Mariano (D-Quincy). “As broad fiscal uncertainty and actions taken by the Trump Administration continue to exacerbate the challenges that hospitals are already facing, this supplemental budget is the latest example of the work that we are doing here in Massachusetts to provide targeted support where it is needed most. I want to thank Chair Michlewitz, Chair Lawn and all my colleagues in the House, as well as our partners in the Senate, for recognizing the need for this funding, and for sending it to the Governor’s desk for her signature.”
Strengthening Massachusetts Hospital Systems
The funding agreement makes $199 million available for eligible high public payer acute care hospitals across the Commonwealth through an approach that maximizes federal financial reimbursements, stabilizes the Health Safety Net Trust Fund, and makes targeted payments to hospitals to maximize the impact of taxpayer dollars.
Provides $122 million in targeted relief payments to certain acute care hospitals utilizing eligibility criteria designed to maximize the impact of taxpayers’ dollars for those hospitals and communities which need it most. The eligibility criteria include:
Each hospital’s patient mix, prioritizing those which serve the greatest share of the state’s low-income population.
Each hospital’s affordability, prioritizing those which provide services at the most affordable prices.
Each hospital’s financial standing, prioritizing those which have the most severe fiscal strain.
Transfers $77 million into the Health Safety Net Trust Fund to stabilize the program for hospitals providing services to the greatest share of the Commonwealth’s vulnerable populations.
Supporting Massachusetts Community Health Centers
Community health centers continue to support the Commonwealth’s greatest share of vulnerable populations while facing federal funding delays, Medicaid cuts, and rising pharmaceutical and other medical costs.
The agreement provides $35 million in financial relief to community health centers, including $2.5 million for the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers to facilitate regional savings initiatives, including shared service options.
Both chambers of the Legislature voted to enact the supplemental budget on Thursday, sending the legislation to the Governor for her signature.
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