DPC’s Access and Inclusion Agenda

This page has bills and budget items that DPC Advocacy is leading efforts around for Fiscal Year 2025 and for the 2023-24 legislative session. Please click here to view or download a pdf with our priorities as well as other bills we support. A screen reader compatible plain text version is also available.

Priority Bills 

H.378/S.152 An Act expanding wheelchair warranty protections for consumers with disabilities. 

Lead Sponsors: Rep. Jim O’Day, Sen. John Cronin 

Wheelchairs and scooters are often prone to defects and sudden failure. It is commonplace for consumers to be left stranded or isolated in their homes for weeks, or even months, awaiting repairs, unable to get to work, school, medical appointments, the grocery store, and in some cases to move around their own home. 

By strengthening warranty protections for Massachusetts residents with disabilities, we can level the playing field for consumers, shorten repair wait times, save taxpayer money, and ensure that we are all treated with dignity and respect. 

H.378/S.152 will expand the existing warranty to two years, and will cover all wheelchair users in the Commonwealth, not just those who are on private insurance or can afford to pay out-of-pocket. It will hold wheelchair providers and suppliers accountable to reasonable repair timelines by requiring they cover costs consumers face as a result of their defective chairs, and stock common parts so they are prepared to service chairs efficiently. 

For more information, contact Harry Weissman at hweissman@dpcma.org or 617-977-4084. 

H.1168/S.726: An Act protecting the homes of seniors and disabled people on MassHealth 

Lead Sponsors: Rep. Christine Barber, Sen. Jo Comerford 

Estate recovery is the practice of MassHealth recouping the cost of medical services from the deceased enrollee's family. While mandated by federal law, estate recovery is made even more aggressive by requirements under Massachusetts law. It can result in the sale of the family home, causing excessive financial burden and perpetuating poverty, especially among communities of color and people with disabilities. In many cases, the family is unaware of this burden as MassHealth has not historically informed applicants or members about estate recovery upon enrollment. This bill seeks to address this issue by making changes to the estate recovery rules to make the statute more equitable for low-income enrollees and families. 

The bill establishes that MassHealth can only recover costs that are federally mandated, limits the recovery for capitated payments, requires notice to applicants and enrollees about estate recovery, establishes criteria for granting undue hardship waivers, expands the obligation to provide information on estate recovery limitations, and exempts the CommonHealth program for disabled adults from estate recovery. 

For more information, contact Charlie Carr at charlescarr@dpcma.org or 978-361-6682. 

H.1601/S.1037 An Act prohibiting discrimination against adults with disabilities in Family and Juvenile Court proceedings 

Lead Sponsors: Rep. Kay Khan, Rep. Jay Livingstone, and Sen. Joan Lovely 

Parents with disabilities, especially psychiatric or intellectual disabilities, inappropriately lose custody or parenting time at alarming rates due to disability discrimination – 5.6% of parents in MA have a disability, but 19% of children in foster care in the US have a parent with a disability. Across the board, disabled parents are 22% more likely to have their parental rights terminated, and parents with psychiatric disabilities are 26 times more likely to have their children removed from their homes. Parents should not be denied the right to raise their children solely on the basis of their disability. 

HD.2670/SD.679 will require courts to use evidence, not assumptions, in order to determine if a parent's disability causes actual harm to a child. Courts will have to explain in writing if a parent's disability is a negative factor in custody and parenting time decisions and assess if the harm can be avoided with accommodations (like adaptive equipment or supportive services).  

For more information, contact Emma Gelbard at egelbard@dpcma.org or 617-456-8247. 

H.1180/S.753: An Act relative to preventing discrimination against persons with disabilities in the provision of health care 

Lead Sponsors: Rep. Josh Cutler, Sen. Adam Gomez 

People with disabilities are frequently the victims of both explicit and implicit bias in the healthcare system, often with harmful and even deadly consequences. Some disabled patients have been denied treatments from medications organ transplants, and even removed from life support, while others and their families report being pressured to sign Do Not Resuscitate orders, all based on the presumption that the lives of people with disabilities are less worth living and less worth saving than the lives of people without disabilities. During the worst days of the COVID-19 pandemic, our own state government took the same approach, adopting Crisis Standards of Care that would have sent thousands of people with disabilities to the back of the line for lifesaving ventilators and ICU beds.  

H.1180/S.753 would protect people with disabilities from life-threatening discrimination in our healthcare system. It would prohibit any healthcare entity from denying or deprioritizing a patient for a healthcare service based on the presumption that their disability made their life less worthwhile. It would put critical protections in place to prevent disabled patients from being pressured to sign Do Not Resuscitate Orders, and it would ensure that decisions about the cost-effectiveness of treatments do not use metrics that discriminate against people with disabilities. Finally, it would ensure that, in any future public health crisis, the rules that dictate who gets access to lifesaving care cannot discriminate against people with disabilities.  

For more information, contact Colin Killick at ckillick@dpcma.org or 617-993-6562. 

 Affordable Housing Act Resources