SPRINGFIELD — Baystate Health has come under pressure this week after two protests outside of its corporate offices demanded the hospital system reinstate gender-affirming care for youth and advocate for a public healthcare system.
On Tuesday evening, about 25 people joined Nadia Milleron, an independent candidate for Congress in Massachusetts’ 1st District, to object to Baystate’s involvement in the health insurance industry through its ownership of Health New England. Protesters also raised concerns about dwindling staff after Baystate cut jobs to close a $60 million budget gap earlier this summer.
“Baystate is violating their own charter because they have an insurance company [and] through that insurance company, they deny healthcare to people,” Milleron said. “They’re a nonprofit, and they’re supposed to serve people’s health needs.”
During a separate rally two days later, 10 protesters held tightly to a tapestry of a blue bus with the words “Baystate bows to Trump” written across the top. Fake children’s legs stuck out from under the painted bus, creating the illusion that transgender youth were “thrown under the bus” after Baystate announced it would no longer provide gender-affirming care to youth.
“Protest art is often uncomfortable to look at,” said Ali Wicks-Lim, a co-organizer of the demonstration. “This [the art installation] is uncomfortable to look at. It should be. Denying healthcare to children should be an uncomfortable truth.”
While the causes are different, the components of both protests mirrored each other. In front of the house-shaped Baystate sign at the intersection of Congress and Chestnut streets, signs with slogans of discontent filled the air, held by people who say Baystate’s actions contradict its claim as a “patient-centered” facility.
A Baystate spokesperson could not be reached for comment.
During Thursday’s protest, Wicks-Lim, a Montague resident, pulled open the door of Baystate’s corporate offices but found it locked. While some of the demonstrators steadied the protest art against the windy weather, Wicks-Lim pursued a second objective: hand-delivering a letter to hospital administration calling on Baystate to resume offering gender-affirming care.
The letter is a request to meet with Baystate administration to discuss changes to its policy. Baystate was sent the letter via email on Aug. 12, but none of the group members received a response.
“They know they’re in violation of Massachusetts law and discriminating against families. They don’t want that exposed to the public,” Wicks-Lim said. “It’s just very transparent how far they’re willing to go to block that message.”
Baystate in February announced that the hospital system would cease providing gender-affirming care to patients under 18. The announcement came after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued two new rules that limit access to hormone treatments and puberty blockers. The first rule prevents any Medicare- and Medicaid-enrolled hospitals from providing these treatments to youth. The second reduces Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) reimbursements for the same care.
In a previous statement to the Gazette, Baystate said it would pause all gender-affirming care besides mental and emotional treatments. The hospital partnered with Transhealth to transfer its trans youth patients to a new provider. The collaboration would preserve the hospital’s Medicare and Medicaid status and ensure trans youth receive the care they need, Baystate argued.
Massachusetts and 22 other states received a federal court order blocking the HHS rules on April 22. But the federal fight around gender-affirming care had another development this month when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced Medicaid and CHIP funding cannot be used for gender-affirming medications or surgeries.
Emma Kristianson-Gural, who wrote the letter Wicks-Lim attempted to deliver, said the partnership with Transhealth does not guarantee trans youth are receiving their care. The added logistics of transferring to a new medical provider and the coinciding stigma ultimately limits access.
“As someone who’s currently trying to access gender-affirming care, it’s hard enough for me as an adult,” Kristianson-Gural said. “I can’t imagine having so many barriers as a kid, and especially in a place that is so progressive. It just sets a precedent that really worries me.”
The bus protest art has traveled to Baystate locations in Northampton, Greenfield and the main campus in Springfield. Security and even police have been called before, but this is the first time the group has been locked out of the building, protesters said.
Actions against Baystate are picking up steam. When Milleron protested the hospital system’s administration on June 9, only six people showed up. By the end of the summer, that number was four times as large.
“The business model for health insurance companies is to deny care,” Milleron said. “As they increasingly deny care, [more] people are affected and willing to do something about it.”
At Milleron’s protest on Tuesday, Ramon Igartua stood on the Baystate curbside just days after his release from the hospital. He was prescribed medication to prevent blood clots from forming in his lungs, a condition called pulmonary embolism. His doctor told him to take four pills a day and wrote prescriptions to match his advice, but Igartua’s insurance company would only pay for one pill a day. After 39 days without medication, another clot formed. Igartua nearly died.
“If I could be a living subject that could help abolish these insurance companies, then I’ve won,” Igartua said.
Milleron adds that the current healthcare system hurts Baystate as well. The company laid off employees across 20 departments in June due to financial challenges. The hospital cited lower Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, inflation and patients delaying care as the causes of its $60 million budget shortfall.
By removing the insurance companies, Milleron and Igartua said medical professionals would regain control over healthcare decisions. Milleron advocates for a Massachusetts Healthcare Trust, a publicly funded healthcare account. MassCare estimates the trust could save $30 billion for both residents and the state.
Legislation to create a single-payer healthcare system in Massachusetts is currently moving through Beacon Hill. An Act establishing Medicare for all in Massachusetts (H.1405/S.860) received its first favorable vote by the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing at the end of July.
However, this redrafted version of the bill will form a committee to study the feasibility of single-payer healthcare rather than create the health trust Milleron supports.
Like Wicks-Lim, Milleron awaits Baystate’s response to her request to meet about supporting a public healthcare system. The protests will continue the second Tuesday of each month, the day the Baystate Health Board of Trustees meets, until change happens.
“We as an electorate have to enact what we need,” Milleron said. “We need to put the appropriate pressure and not reelect people who don’t solve this problem.”
