HEALTHCARE - How Massachusetts Does It

This is about a state that enacted Heathcare Reform before the federal reform.

"Four Years After Health Reform, an Update on Care in Massachusetts"
PBS Newshour Healthcare Report Series 11/15/2010


Comments on issues stated, with excerpts from transcript

BETTY ANN BOWSER (Newshour): The Massachusetts law has also not solved another major problem, the shortage of primary care physicians, which got worse when more people had insurance and could afford to go to a doctor.

Every year since passage in 2006, the Massachusetts Medical Society has found the shortage to be either critical or severe. And that's affected traffic to the emergency room.

This should be expected (a DUH moment).

Theoretical example:

8,000 MD
250,000 patients covered
appx 31-MD/patient

8,000 MD
850,000 patients covered
appx 106-MD/patient

Bad ratio, yes. Unexpected, no.

Good or bad? Good if you think about people getting their health needs.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Now Nichols and her husband buy insurance for $160 a month through the state's so-called Connector, an exchange where residents can sign up for one of seven state-approved plans run by private insurance companies.

The new federal law calls for each state to set up similar programs. Since 2006, premiums in the individual insurance market have gone down 40 percent on average. But Massachusetts continues to have among the highest premiums in the nation, although state officials say employer-provided insurance seems to be stabilizing.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist Jon Gruber was a key adviser to the Obama White House when the new federal health care reform law was being crafted. He was also one of the chief architects of the Massachusetts reforms.

JON GRUBER, economist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology: It's worked very well. I think the facts are very clear. We have lowered the number of uninsured by 60 percent, from about 10 percent of the population to about 4 percent of the population. We have done so on budget. We essentially are exactly where we thought we would be when we started the program in 2006.

And we have done so in a way which is very popular with the public. It's got about a 74 percent public approval rating.
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BETTY ANN BOWSER: Unlike some other parts of the country, health care reform here in Massachusetts is popular. And one of the reasons is because just about everybody who lives here has health insurance. So, while the law that passed a few years ago has been successful in getting more people into the tent, it also has created some new issues.

Perhaps the biggest one is, the law has done nothing to rein in the price tag for taking care of people. Economist Gruber says cost containment was never a goal of the Massachusetts legislation. Its focus was to get more people insured.

A question for people in general. How much is YOUR health worth to you?