Every MassHealth Community Partner program in Massachusetts will close by June 30. All 20 of them. The programs connect 65,000 people experiencing homelessness, addiction, and poverty to doctors, mental health care, and social services they cannot navigate alone.
The closures are a direct result of federal Medicaid funding cuts. The reconciliation bill signed by President Trump cuts roughly $911 billion from Medicaid over 10 years. Massachusetts absorbed the first wave by slashing its FY27 care management budget by 50%.
Who Loses Care
Community Partners are not hospitals or clinics. They are the organizations that get a person sleeping under a bridge into a doctor’s office. They track medications for people with no permanent address. They follow up after an ER visit so the patient does not end up back in the emergency room a week later.
The 65,000 clients served are among the state’s most vulnerable: people experiencing chronic homelessness, people in recovery from opioid addiction, people with severe mental illness who have fallen out of the traditional healthcare system.
Without these programs, care coordination stops. The clients do not disappear. They show up in emergency rooms, which costs more and treats less.
What the State Cut
Massachusetts did not choose to end these programs. The federal funding reduction forced a budget restructuring. The state’s FY27 budget includes a 50% reduction in care management spending. Governor Healey’s administration has not announced a replacement program.
Additional changes affecting noncitizen eligibility for state health coverage take effect October 1, 2026. The state estimates tens of thousands more residents could lose coverage in the fall.
What You Can Do
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Call Governor Healey’s office at (617) 725-4005. Ask what state-level stopgap funding exists for the 65,000 people losing care coordination on June 30. The deadline is 22 days away.
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Contact Senators Markey and Warren. Demand restoration of federal Medicaid funding that caused these cuts. The reconciliation bill’s Medicaid provisions are already law, but Congress can pass standalone restoration bills.
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Contact your U.S. Representative. Ask them to cosponsor any bill restoring the federal Medicaid match rate (FMAP) that Massachusetts and other states depend on for community health programs.