Massachusetts Governor Healey signs new veterans’ benefits law; here is what’s in it

Sam Doran

LEXINGTON, MASS. – Gov. Maura Healey signed off Thursday on a new veterans’ benefits law that she touted as “a big deal,” while Veterans’ Services Secretary Jon Santiago told a packed town hall that the Holyoke Veterans Home had been awarded licensure by the Department of Public Health.

The state-run facility in Holyoke was plagued by scandal in 2020 after a deadly COVID-19 outbreak killed more than 70 veterans living there. Reform of the system was spurred on by a 2022 law, which mandated that both the Holyoke and Chelsea veterans homes achieve DPH licensure.

“It’s hot off the press that both of those homes are now licensed by the Department of Public Health, something that people thought was unimaginable, impossible after COVID-19,” Santiago told attendees at the bill-signing ceremony.

The Chelsea Veterans Home achieved DPH licensure last year, which was announced by EOVS at the same time that the first 20 residents moved into a newly-constructed building there.

Speaking from the stage in Lexington’s Cary Memorial Building before the signing, Healey said that “we are so blessed as a nation.”

“That men and women are willing to serve, are willing to enlist, are willing to sign up and answer that call. We’re also so lucky that the families are willing to support their loved ones as they do their service, knowing, as for some in this room, that they may not return,” she said.

Among the law’s provisions is a boost to the annuity granted by the state to Gold Star parents and spouses — those who have lost their loved one in the service — stepping up the grant to $2,500. Its annual $2,000 rate had not been updated in decades.

Santiago recalled meeting Holly Shay, a Gold Star mother whose son, U.S. Army Sgt. Jordan Shay, was killed in Iraq. He told the crowd that, after meeting her, he realized the amount of the Gold Star annuity had not been touched in around 20 years.

With Healey’s signature, the law also gets rid of what Santiago called “bureaucratic” aspects of the Veterans Service Buyback Program, which veterans entering a public employee job had to apply for within 180 days. Sen. John Velis explained during the Senate session that produced the final bill that it eliminates the 180-day window to enter the program and buy back military time, and offers a grace period for those who have missed out.

Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts legislative agent Paul Jacques is a 22-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force who served two tours in Iraq. He said the law will “help a lot of people” including police and fire department employees who missed out on their buybacks.

“As we all know, in the first 180 days of anyone’s career, when you’re a younger person, especially getting out of the military … you’re not thinking about retirement,” Jacques told the News Service. He added, “Where I work in Attleboro, we have members on there, that this is going to be life-changing for them.”

The law expands veterans’ access to mental health services, which an existing benefits law — Chapter 115 — does not give veterans reimbursement for. The new law provides for a “behavioral health assistance benefit” that will offer “coverage for the cost of those necessary outpatient behavioral health assessments, evaluations, visits, prescriptions and other such treatment as the secretary shall determine through regulations.”

It also opens the door for veterans who served as military medics, now pursuing a civilian EMT job, to potentially be able to skip EMT training and move straight to taking the test.

Healey touted the new law as “the most comprehensive veterans’ legislation to come out of this state ever, probably.”

The bill is one of just a handful of substantive policy packages the Legislature has handed to Healey over the last year and a half. The governor said she and Santiago chose to come to Lexington to sign the bill because the town is a “special” place.

“You know, 250 years ago, the whole American experiment, our American democracy, our country, was born here,” she said, earning cheers from an auditorium that also featured local officials like Lexington select board and town meeting members.

Lexington’s fire chief estimated around 600 people were packed into the Cary Memorial Building, and the crowd included members of veterans’ groups like the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Gold Star family members, current servicemembers, and at least two veterans of World War II.

One of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen, Enoch “Woody” Woodhouse, stood onstage as Healey signed the bill. And 102-year-old Caster Salemi of North Attleborough, who served in the Pacific Theatre of the Second World War, sat in the front row.

Salemi “made the landing in the Philippines, following MacArthur,” he told the News Service. He said it was “very important” for the state to keep looking after its veterans.

“The ones that are getting the most help are the ones that are most injured. This is [also] helping those that don’t have any injuries,” Salemi said.

Michael Valila, adjutant of the Massachusetts chapter of the Disabled American Veterans, said his organization had 23,000 members in the state but there were “so, so, so many more” veterans living with disabilities in the community. The new law will make a “huge impact” for them, he said.

“Anything that will help the veteran is a positive thing,” the Marine Corps League’s John MacGillivray said.

Also in the crowd were Maj. Gen. Gary Keefe, the adjutant general; Inspector General Jeffrey Shapiro; Sens. John Cronin and Lydia Edwards; and Reps. Michelle Ciccolo, Gerard Cassidy, Margaret Scarsdale, Kelly Pease, Patricia Duffy, and Steven Xiarhos, a Gold Star father whose son Nicholas was killed in Afghanistan 15 years ago.

Velis told the crowd that Edwards, an East Boston Democrat who was commissioned last year as a judge advocate general officer in the National Guard, is about to embark on her own military career. He said that Edwards “this coming Sunday is going to be leaving for the equivalent of her basic training.”

In the middle of Healey’s speech, as she mentioned the construction of the new Chelsea Veterans Home, one of its residents — 84-year-old Marine Corps veteran Phil Tammaro — couldn’t contain his excitement.

“Governor — Dr. Jon got us crosswalks at the soldiers’ home,” Tammaro exclaimed from his front-row seat, referring to the governor’s Cabinet secretary, Dr. Jon Santiago.

“I’ve been living up there for 23 years,” Tammaro told the News Service after the ceremony. “I’ve been trying to get crosswalks. Dr. Jon became in charge of veterans. First thing I says, ‘Doctor, I’ve been up here for 23 years, I’ve been trying to get crosswalks.’ He goes, ‘Phil, I’ll have them for you within six days.'”

“Six days later, crosswalks everywhere,” Tammaro said.