Now, with a bill delegating how to spend nearly $4 billion in American Rescue Plan Act and state surplus funding sitting on his desk, Baker must put his signature on it quickly. He received the legislation Dec. 3 after it languished for months amid House and Senate deliberations and he has until Monday to act. It contains a desperately needed $964 million in health-care relief, according to a Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation analysis. That’s the single largest expenditure within the bill.

A 2018 report by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation estimated the cost of lost productivity in the state due to people unable to work, foregone income due to fatalities, absenteeism and "presenteeism," and excess health care costs at nearly $10 billion. That's on top of the $5.5 billion cost of opioid programs and direct services statewide.

Letter from Eileen McAnneny to State Senators Cindy Friedman and Ann-Margaret Ferrante, Chair and Vice Chair of the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing, in support of public health investment of ARPA funds.

The work of the Special Commission on Regional and Local Public Health was codified recently by the legislature. MTF’s President Eileen McAnneny was part of this commission formed to determine how best to improve the numerous municipal public health departments, provide standards of care, and do so in an efficient way. After gathering information for two years, the commission offered a series of recommendations that are embodied in the recently passed law. The pandemic helped focus attention on the importance of public health and the need to make targeted investments in it.

New edicts and guidance concerning COVID-19 are being released every day. To help you stay current, we have aggregated some important resources below:

Federal:

• https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
• https://www.usa.gov/coronavirus
• https://www.coronavirus.gov/

State: