Since April 2006, when the Massachusetts Health Care Reform Bill was signed into law at a ceremony in Boston’s historic Faneuil Hall, the state has been on a fast pace to meet its ambitious goal of providing every uninsured adult resident—by some estimates, more than 500,000—with affordable coverage.
The reform law is generating national attention for a few of its innovative provisions, such as the “individual mandate” requiring all adults to sign up for coverage by July 1, 2007, or face financial penalties and the “employer assessment,” which requires employers with more than 10 workers to pay money into a fund each year if they fail to provide coverage to their employees.
“It’s an important national model,” says U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt of the Massachusetts reform initiative, and already some of its components are being adapted in other states, including California.
But while the reform effort speeds along in the Bay State, questions remain: Will it work? And what will reform mean for the larger issue of cost management?
Coverage Concern
It is well documented that the growing ranks of the uninsured throughout the United States are placing financial pressures on the healthcare system. Those who get health insurance where they work probably don’t think much about—that is, until they lose it. But for people who don’t have a plan, there is risk and anxiety. They don’t get regular checkups. Most go to the hospital for emergencies only. A person who is uninsured and faces a devastating and expensive illness finds herself in poor financial health as well.
When people who don’t have access to preventive care get really sick, they generally end up in emergency departments. In Massachusetts, when patients can’t cover the cost of their care, that cost is passed along through an “uncompensated care pool” system that is paid for by taxpayers, insurers, and the hospitals themselves.
Any shortfalls in pool funding—a common occurrence in recent years—are borne entirely by hospitals; that is, they are forced to eat the cost, which, in turn, increases healthcare costs throughout the system.
Compassion requires us to improve access to primary care for all. Economics requires us to end the cost shifting that puts upward pressure on the price we all pay for healthcare.
A central tenet of the reform debate has been shared responsibility in our healthcare system. It has been argued by many, including hospitals, that the immense moral and financial challenge of ensuring that the citizenry has health insurance coverage should be shared by all; health insurance should not necessarily be the responsibility of the employer, nor should it be borne entirely by government or low-income individuals.
The health reform bill divides the pie more equitably than ever before. In addition to the individual mandate and employer assessment mentioned above, new requirements are placed on hospitals to ensure that they offer care in a more open and cost-effective way than in the past. And, until enrollment efforts are proven successful, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is also committed to providing fairer payments to providers through Medicaid and through adequate funding of the uncompensated care pool.
Specifically, Massachusetts’ healthcare reform seeks to enroll 90,000 additional individuals into MassHealth (Medicaid). It created Commonwealth Care, a health insurance program that offers those earning less than 100% of the Federal Poverty Level ($9,805/year) a full range of healthcare services, including inpatient services in hospitals; preventive and primary care; medical care from a specialist in a doctor’s office, community health center, or hospital; emergency care; vision care; prescription drugs; inpatient and outpatient mental health and substance abuse services; and some dental coverage. These families pay no monthly premiums and limited co-pays.