This policy brief describes the rate of uninsurance among working-age adults in Massachusetts and public support for health reform. This brief is part of a series funded by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, the Commonwealth Fund, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on implementation of the Massachusetts reforms.

This policy brief by Sharon Long of The Urban Institute measures geographic and racial disparities in access to health care in Massachusetts. The data in the brief comes from the third annual Massachusetts Health Reform Survey. This revised version of the policy brief, which was originally published 5/28/2009, reflects changes made after an error in constructing survey weights was discovered and corrected. These changes do not impact the basic findings and conclusions in the original policy brief with respect to geographic differences; however, it does lead to more evidence of racial/ethnic differences in the affordability of health care in Massachusetts.

This report is the first assessment of how spending to insure hundreds of thousands of additional people in the Commonwealth is being shared. It finds that the overall distribution of spending on health insurance by employers, individuals, and government remained essentially the same between 2005, one year before passage of the 2006 Massachusetts health reform law, and 2007, one year into the laws implementation.

A 10-page issue brief that assesses the extent to which the insurance provided in Massachusetts under health reform in 2007 protects individuals from financial risk in the event of a major illness or injury.

An eight-page issue brief that analyzes the impacts of health reform on insurance coverage across different population groups in the state. Specifically, it examines differences in insurance coverage by demographic characteristics (e.g., age, race/ethnicity, and gender), health status, employment, and geography.

Results of a public opinion poll of Massachusetts residents about health care reform.

An easy-to-use guide describing public health insurance options in Massachusetts and a set of flow charts illustrating the eligibility pathways to these programs for low-income people and families, elderly people, and people with disabilities. Also available on the Pathways to Coverage website.

This chartbook provides detailed estimates of health insurance coverage in Massachusetts. It uses the most recent information available (for calendar year 2005) from the Census Bureaus 2006 Annual Social and Economic Supplements to the Current Population Survey. It updates figures in an earlier chartbook that was released in 6/2005 Health Insurance Coverage and the Uninsured in Massachusetts.

An independent report by health care journalist Irene Wielawski that examines how various interests in Massachusetts politics forged consensus to pass the 2006 health reform law.

Data from the Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard School of Public Health/Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation Massachusetts Health Reform Tracking Survey. This was the first in a series of surveys measuring Massachusetts residents attitudes towards and experiences with the 2006 health reform law.

This report is an overview of the first year after implementation of the Massachusetts health reform law. It catalogs some of the most significant milestones and achievements and describes how policymakers, stakeholders, and the new Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority and its Board managed a host of potentially contentious issues and decisions.

Report on the results of a September 2006 public opinion poll of Massachusetts residents on various aspects of the health reform law, prepared by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health for the BCBS of Massachusetts Foundation. 

This report by Sharon Long and Mindy Cohen provides a snapshot of Massachusetts’s adult population prior to the implementation of the 2006 health reform legislation in the state.

An examination of how to define affordability relative to the enforcement of the individual mandate requirement of the 2006 health reform law.