Jan 17, 2007 11:30 pm US/Eastern
Deval Patrick Responds To Viewer Questions
BOSTON (CBS4) ―
Participants in our town meeting Web cast on Monday night asked Governor Deval Patrick several important questions.
We started the governor off with a question from a self-employed businesswoman with a widely-shared concern.
"What are you planning on doing to make health insurance more affordable to people like me who have small businesses?" said Michelle Fermin of Dracut.
"One of the biggest issues is that they're not a part of larger purchasing pools. State employees, for instance, are part of a purchasing pool that includes thousands of people. It improves the buying power for insurance. We need to look at ways for small business owners to join similar kinds of pools," Patrick said.
Asked Ben Ticho of Worcester: "I'd like to know what you would do to help keep our community schools open until at least the evening hours."
"I'm interested in encouraging more after-school programs, and using school buildings for those programs so kids can stay in the same place - won't you have to take on the unions over that? - well, not necessarily because it's not necessarily the same personnel," Patrick said.
Another question asked: What will you do to allow competition among car insurance companies?
Patrick said: "There's a policy judgment that we made when we put the current insurance framework in place which I support, and that is an evening out, if you will, as to the rates paid by people who live in the cities, people who live in the suburbs, people who are newer drivers vs. older drivers, to make the peaks and valleys, the differentials, less extreme. That to me seems right.
Thursday night at 11 p.m., the governor responds to your concerns about MCAS testing, funding for the arts, traffic congestion, and his campaign promises.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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