Directed To:

Massachusetts State Legislature/General Court

⸻

What We’re Asking For:

Pass The Achieving Beyond Limits & Expectations Act (The ABLE Act) in the 2025–2026 session to eliminate financial barriers that block people with disabilities from accessing life-changing mobility and medical technology.

⸻

Petition Description

My name is Alan Mack, and I’m a Certified Community Health Worker based in Quincy, Massachusetts, and a Council Member on Boston’s Advisory Council on Ending Homelessness. I’m also a spinal cord injury survivor—and I’m asking you to join me in supporting a bill I drafted out of personal necessity and a deep injustice.

In 2020, I sustained a T11/T12 spinal cord injury that left me paralyzed from the waist down. Since then, I’ve become a health advocate, public servant, and fighter for equity. Recently, I was prescribed an FDA-approved exoskeleton—a $128,000 medical device that could help me stand, walk, and regain critical mobility.

But I was devastated to learn that raising funds for this medically necessary equipment could disqualify me from Medicaid, SSI, and public housing—the very safety net that sustains me. Unless I pay thousands for a Special Needs Trust, or use an ABLE account with limits far below the equipment’s cost, I’m trapped.

And I’m not alone. Thousands of people with disabilities in Massachusetts face this impossible choice every day:

Raise money to recover — or stay eligible for survival.

That’s why I drafted The Achieving Beyond Limits & Expectations Act (The ABLE Act) — a bipartisan, equity-driven bill that gives people like me, and countless others, the freedom to pursue health, mobility, and dignity without being penalized for it.

⸻

What The ABLE Act Would Do:

• Raise ABLE account contribution limits to $25,000/year

• Allow a one-time $150,000 contribution for medically necessary expenses without losing benefits

• Offer a 50% state income tax credit for donors:

• Up to $2,000/year for individuals

• Up to $5,000/year for businesses

• Require MassHealth and insurers to cover FDA-approved exoskeletons and DME

• Offer matching grants and tax incentives to insurers who expand coverage voluntarily

• Create a Durable Medical Equipment (DME) Access & Innovation Fund to:

• Help low-income people buy medical equipment

• Support local DME businesses and certified repair techs

• Phase in coverage across health plans over 3 years

• Study the outcomes and cost-effectiveness of expanded DME access

⸻

Why This Matters — My Story and Yours

The ABLE Act isn’t just about one person. It’s about all of us who are being denied a fair shot at recovery.

It’s about kids with cerebral palsy who can’t safely crowdsource for a wheelchair ramp.

It’s about veterans, stroke survivors, and accident victims forced to choose between walking and staying housed.

No one should be punished for trying to get better.

This bill is simple, fair, and evidence-based. It empowers families, supports small businesses, saves taxpayer dollars, and reflects the values Massachusetts claims to hold: equity, inclusion, and innovation.

⸻

We, the undersigned, call on the Massachusetts Legislature to:

• Sponsor & Co-sponsor The ABLE Act

• Advance it through committee

• Pass it into law in the 2025–2026 session

Because mobility is not a luxury. Dignity is not a loophole.

And people with disabilities deserve the tools to live — not just survive.

⸻

Please sign and share this petition to support The ABLE Act and help us build a Commonwealth where everyone can Achieve Beyond Limits & Expectations.

Walking with Exoskeleton in Therapy

Walking with Exoskeleton in Therapy 2

Walking with KAFO’s in Therapy

Jo Comerford

2 petitions targeting Jo Comerford

Do you have an issue that Jo Comerford can influence?