September 10, 2009

Health Reform in Massachusetts: An Update on Insurance Coverage & Support for Reform as of Fall 2008

Sharon K. Long and Karen Stockley of the Urban Institute conducted three rounds of annual interviews with adults between the ages of 18 and 64. They conducted the first round, 3,010 interviews, in the fall of 2006 before the key elements of reform were implemented. The next interviews took place in the fall of 2007 with 2,938 people, and the fall of 2008 with 4,041 people. The researchers collected information on insurance status, access to care, out-of-pocket health care costs, medical debt, and information about other general financial problems. They found that after the State of Massachusetts instituted a mandatory health insurance policy for state residents in 2006, by the fall of 2008, the rate of uninsured state residents had dropped by 70%, from 13.0% in 2006 to 4.0% in 2008. There was no evidence that the expansion of publicly-subsidized health insurance coverage crowded-out employer-sponsored health insurance.