Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

Kudos for Mass., Pt.1 -- 2-Year Assessment

The state of Massachusetts has recently (last two years) instituted it’s own health care project. Their goal is to provide affordable health insurance to as many of their residents as they can. In the Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report- State Watch – “Health Care Experts Discuss Massachusetts Health Insurance Law Two Years After Implementation”, Kaiser assesses the success of Massachusetts’ brave new pilot health insurance project. Executive director for the Massachusetts Health Insurance Connector Authority, Jon Kingsdale reports “Massachusetts has made ‘reasonably good progress’ in implementing its universal health coverage law”. As reported by CQ HealthBeat, this forum was sponsored by the Alliance for Health Reform and the Kaiser Family Foundation. CQ HealthBeat also adds that, as successful as this project is progressing, health care experts at the forum acknowledged that legal, cost and regulatory challenges are still ahead.

Under the current plan, Massachusetts’ residents 18 and older either have to obtain health insurance, if affordable coverage is available, or else pay a tax penalty. Though the state offers subsidized coverage for low-income residents, employers also must contribute to the cost of workers' health insurance coverage or pay into a fund. According to Mr. Kingsdale, of the 340,000 newly insured state residents two-thirds of them have enrolled in the subsidized program. The remaining one-third have purchased private coverage. “Premiums for residents who purchase private coverage have declined by nearly half. At the same time, the costs for the Commonwealth Care subsidized program are increasing by 6.5% per beneficiary.” The good news is that this 6.5% is still within budget.

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