Next Steps: Help Pass the Massachusetts Pump Bill

By Naomi Bromberg Bar-Yam, PhD

For three sessions, the Massachusetts Legislature has considered a life-saving pump bill, S.682 / H.4345 – An Act Improving Access to Breast Pumps. This session, we’re closer than ever—but we need your help to get it across the finish line.

We have made it very easy to take action, with templates below including all the email addresses you will need. It will take only a few minutes to send two critical emails.

What the Pump Bill Does

The pump bill requires health insurance plans in Massachusetts to cover the rental of electric, multi-user double breast pumps when medically necessary—such as when a baby is in the NICU or unable to nurse directly. These pumps are essential to maintaining milk supply during the critical early days of a medically fragile infant’s life.

Why Now?

• The Senate version (S.682) has already passed the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing and is now in Senate Ways and Means.
• The House version (H.4345) is still in the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing (formerly H. 1317, the bill number has been changed recently).
• These bills are nearly identical and have already been through public hearings.
• The CHIA report (independent review) requested by the legislature found the bill to be valuable and financially worthwhile.
• The pump bill came close to passing last session but was caught in the end-of-session crush.

This is our moment to finish the work and ensure every baby gets the best possible start—no matter where they’re born or how fragile their beginning.

What You Can Do Now

1. Write or call the House members of the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing.  Ask them to support H.4345 and urge them to report H.4345 out favorably.
   
   Health Care Financing template with email addresses
   
   
2. Write or call the Chair and Vice Chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee. Include your Senator, if they are a member of the committee (here’s how to find out who your legislators are). Thank them for supporting S.682 and ask to move it to the floor for a vote this session, as soon as possible.
   
   Ways and Means template with email addresses

Even if your legislators are not on these committees, your voice demonstrates that this issue matters across the Commonwealth.

Thank you for taking a few moments to give voice and hope to fragile, premature babies and their families.

Naomi Bromberg Bar-Yam, PhD, has been working in maternal and child health for 35 years as an educator, researcher, advocate, and writer. In addition to serving on the board of Massachusetts Breastfeeding Coalition, she is past president of the Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA) and is the founding director emerita of Mothers’ Milk Bank Northeast, which provides safe donor milk to hospitals and families throughout the northeastern US. Learn more about her on her LactSpeak profile.

Blog editor: Ann Marie Lindquist