The nonprofit Massachusetts Fishing Partnership the group that has worked for more than 15 years to extend health-care benefits to the US New England’s fishermen and others who work within the industry is shifting its focus to provide more overall social outreach and steer fishermen to the best coverage plans for which they’re eligible.
But the partnership is also shifting away from providing its own coverage plans, working instead toward steering fishermen and other waterfront workers into health-care coverage that works best for them, as well as provide other outreach services for the industry, partnership president JJ Bartlett says.
Bartlett said the changing health-care landscape, including the dawn of MassHealth and federal health-care reform, has brought the shift in focus though the partnership’s goals remain the same as when it was launched in 1995. Bartlett is an Acton resident who has worked with all segments of the fishing industry and was called by the White House Office of Health Reform earlier this year to testify on health issues and the unique health-care needs of the fishing industry,
“Our mission remains to get the best coverage we can for as many people in the industry that we can,” Bartlett said during a visit to the Times.
Over the years, he said, the partnership has lowered the percentage of uninsured workers in the fishing industry from more than 40 percent to 13 percent.
Yet the complexities of serving a largely independent workforce combined with the complications of today’s health-care plans and eligibility standards have posed a number of hurdles.
“At one time, given their income, a fishermen might be eligible for one plan, another time he might not be eligible, but would be for another,” said Angela Sanfilippo, who is president of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association but also serves as a “community health navigator” for the fishing partnership and serves on its board.
The industry also poses unique coverage needs, Bartlett and Sanfilippo said, with a workforce that is 15 percent older than the U.S. average, one with diminishing income levels all in a field of work that is statistically ranked as the nation’s most hazardous.
To that end, the partnership is now launching a full membership through which the program will steer those in the industry toward the best coverage plans and preventive measures such as flu vaccinations.
The partnership’s outreach coordinators include fishermen, fishermen’s wives, and directors of fishing associations who have access to industry specific organizations and resources. And they are trained to provide information to fishermen about state and federal funding sources, including the affordable health coverage programs created by health care reform.
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