A critical component of health care reform in Massachusetts was that the responsibility of paying for expanded access to health insurance be shared among government, business, and individuals.
“Shared Responsibility, Government, Business, and Individuals: Who Pays What for Health Reform?” is the first assessment of how spending to insure hundreds of thousands of additional people in the Commonwealth is being shared. Researchers Robert Seifert, M.P.A., and Paul Swoboda, M.S.,of the Center for Health Law and Economics, University of Massachusetts Medical School, compared spending on health insurance in 2005, before the health care reform law was enacted, with spending on insurance in 2007, one year after the law went into effect.
In 2007, employers and union health plans accounted for slightly less than half of the total spending on health insurance in Massachusetts; government accounted for approximately 30 percent; and individuals accounted for about a quarter. In 2005, the breakdown of spending was the same, which means that the policy goal set forth in the Massachusetts health care reform law that each sector paying for health insurance in Massachusetts continue to share the responsibility is being met.
The report also finds that the policy goal of paying for coverage while reducing spending on the uninsured – a crucial underpinning of federal support for the law in the form of a Medicaid waiver – is being met. From 2005 to 2007, spending on health services for the uninsured in Massachusetts fell by 40 percent, from $1.8 billion to $1.1 billion.
The report is the most recent evidence to date that the Massachusetts health care reform law is working:
In October, 2008 the Foundation released a report by Jon Gabel of the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago finding that public subsidies for health insurance coverage were not “crowding out” employer-sponsored plans.
In July, 2008, the Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health released a public opinion poll showing that support for the health care reform law remains strong with 77 percent saying they support providing subsidized coverage; 71 percent saying the law has been successful at reducing the number of uninsured in Massachusetts; and 66% saying they are opposed to limiting the number of people who qualify for subsidized insurance and creating a waiting list.
In June, 2008, the Foundation, Commonwealth Fund, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation released survey results from The Urban Institute showing that the health reform law had resulted in increased access to health and dental care and lower rates of medical debt.
There are many challenges ahead, not least of which is how to grapple with rising health care costs. In the meantime, the Massachusetts health care reform law is succeeding at expanding access to care while all of us – government, business, and individuals – play a shared role in making it work.
“spending on health services for the uninsured in Massachusetts fell by 40 percent, from $1.8 billion to $1.1 billion.”
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p>Sounds good to me.