Data: Findings From Massachusetts Health Reform

By Haydn Bush	January 27, 2012
A new study in Health Affairs analyzes the impact of Massachusetts health reform efforts on insurance coverage, affordability and outcomes.

A new Health Affairs study finds that 94.2 percent of Massachusetts adults were covered by health insurance in 2010, four years after the passage of the state's health reform law. In addition, the percentage of nonelderly adults who reported their health as very good or excellent rose from 59.7 percent to 64.9 percent from 2006-2010. Affordability remains a major issue, though; between 2006-2010, the average employee health care premium rose from $1,001-$1,200 for single coverage and from $3,128-$3,444 for family coverage.

Among the other findings:

• The percentage of state residents who support health reform declined from 69 percent in 2006 to 65.6 percent in 2010.
• The percentage of nonelderly adults who spent more than 10 percent of family income on health care dropped from 9.8 percent in 2006 to 6.1 percent in 2010.
• The percentage of Massachusetts residents reporting a period without insurance in the past year declined from 19.5 percent in 2006 to 12.1 percent in 2010. In addition, the percentage of long-term uninsured residents dropped from 8.8 percent to less than 3 percent over the same time frame.
• The percentage of nonelderly residents who visited a hospital emergency department in the past year declined from 34.2 percent in 2006 to 30.4 percent in 2010.

Click here to read a PDF of the full report.

The opinions expressed by authors do not necessarily reflect the policy of Health Forum Inc. or the American Hospital Association.

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