Growing up near Albany, New York, this son of a public school teacher first became politically active in high school, where he advocated for increased school budgets and progressive school board candidates. A longtime activist and leader, he spent twelve years as the chair of the Watertown Democratic Town Committee. In 2016 he was elected to the Democratic State Committee, where he helped the party enact reforms to increase voter participation.
Massachusetts has a proud history of working to ensure the right to health care among all its citizens. Its first-of-a-kind health insurance guarantee paved the way for the national Affordable Care Act.
Now is the time for Massachusetts to again lead the way. Representative Owens strongly supports House Bill 1267, which would establish a single-payer “Medicare for All” system to provide equitable, cost-effective, efficient access to health care for all residents of the Commonwealth. Specifically, the new legislation will:
â— Replace the current mixture of public and private health insurance plans with a uniform and comprehensive health care plan available to every Massachusetts resident.
â— Eliminate co-insurance, co-payments, deductibles, and any other form of patient cost sharing.
â— Ensure that all residents have access to dental care, behavioral health, eyeglasses, hearing aids, home health care, nursing home care, and other important needs.
â— Work to reduce health care costs for residents, municipalities, and businesses.
â— Reduce administrative cost and inefficiencies and use savings to expand covered health care services, contain health care cost increases, promote innovation, and expand primary and preventative health care.
Representative Owens is also a strong supporter of reproductive health care, and of protecting the right to abortion services. He is a cosponsor of several measures currently under consideration in the State House that will ensure the rights of women in Massachusetts.