This chartpack summarizes the impact of the 2006 Massachusetts health reform law. The chartpack gathers data from surveys and analyses by state government agencies including the Massachusetts Center for Health Information and Analysis, the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, and the Massachusetts Health Insurance Connector Authority, as well as highlights from health reform tracking surveys conducted by the Urban Institute. This document has been designed to support the use of the charts in slide presentations, and we encourage readers to use them. We plan to update this chartpack regularly.

This report – written by Elisabeth Rodman of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation – explains how the Commonwealth of Massachusetts chose to implement the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the resulting changes to health programs, policies, and operations. This report serves as a follow up to Re-Forming Reform: What the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Means for Massachusetts, and describes the changes to the state’s subsidized coverage options, eligibility and enrollment policies and procedures, private insurance market, and payment reform initiatives that will result from ACA implementation.

This report, by Robert Seifert and Amanda Littell-Clark of the University of Massachusetts Medical School’s Center for Health Law and Economics, summarizes recent efforts by the Massachusetts Medicaid program (“MassHealth”) to address enrollment volatility and provides recommendations to mitigate remaining challenges by leveraging the opportunities presented with the transition to ACA-compliant eligibility systems and programs. This report is a follow-up to a 2010 MMPI study, also by Robert Seifert and colleagues, Enrollment and Disenrollment in MassHealth and Commonwealth Care, which described the consequences of enrollment volatility, quantified its extent in Massachusetts programs, and compared that experience with other states.

This report is the latest in a series by the Urban Institute analyzing the impact of the Massachusetts health reform law based on the Massachusetts Health Reform Survey (MHRS).  Findings show that that the remaining uninsured are disproportionately young, male, Hispanic, and non-citizens.  The data presented also show the geographic areas of the state with high numbers of uninsured children and non-elderly adults. Suggested outreach strategies to reach the remaining uninsured include targeting specific populations of uninsured individuals as well as specific geographic areas with higher rates and numbers of uninsured. Click here to view a one-page graphic with key findings from the report.

As a part of the 2006 Massachusetts health reform, the state implemented an individual mandate to help improve access to affordable, quality health care. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) also includes an individual mandate, which differs in many design components from the Massachusetts individual mandate.

This report, written by Linda J. Blumberg and Lisa Clemans-Cope of the Urban Institute, examines the three policy options for Massachusetts with regard to its individual mandate. The state can eliminate its mandate, maintain the mandate in its current form, or maintain but modify its mandate to be more consistent with the ACA. In comparing the three options, the researchers consider several criteria, including minimizing complexity for residents, maximizing political acceptability, limiting the administrative burden on the state, minimizing impacts on state revenue, and minimizing disruption to the state’s current system, which has effectively increased insurance coverage and ensured a minimum level of benefits across all insurance markets since 2006.

This report is the latest in a series by the Urban Institute analyzing the impact of the Massachusetts health reform law. Findings show that despite the state's economic recession Massachusetts has maintained record low levels of uninsured and access to needed health care has improved. This report is based on the 2010 Massachusetts Health Reform Survey (MHRS), which has tracked the impact of the law annually since 2006.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation report by Alan G. Raymond on the first five years of Massachusetts health reform implementation, including comprehensive assessments of how the law is working, impacts on coverage and access to care, and cost and funding.

Released on the fifth anniversary of the passage of Massachusetts health reform, this comprehensive slide deck pulls together the findings of surveys and other efforts to monitor the impact of the 2006 Massachusetts health reform law. The charts in this report track the impact of Massachusetts health reform efforts on coverage and access to care, the response to the individual mandate, employer participation in providing coverage to employees, and public opinion. Data come from surveys and analyses by state government agencies including the Massachusetts Division of Health Care Finance and Policy, the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, and the Massachusetts Health Insurance Connector Authority. In addition, highlights from health reform tracking surveys conducted annually by the Urban Institute are included. Updated regularly.

New analysis by MMPI examining the growth in MassHealth enrollment since passage of the state's health reform law. This analysis shows that most of the growth in MassHealth enrollment (76 percent) has been in eligibility categories that existed prior to reform, and therefore would have occurred in the absence of the state's health reform law.

Full text of Chapter 58 of the Acts of 2006, as subsequently amended and revised, with links to relevant agencies, reports, and regulations.  

Start Here

According to this new report, implementation of national health reform will direct billions of new federal dollars into the Massachusetts health care system, expand public coverage to reach more of the state's residents, and has the potential to help the state reach its cost containment and quality of care goals. Written by the Center for Health Law and Economics at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, this report is the most comprehensive assessment to date of how the national reform law intersects with the Commonwealth's own health reforms.

This report is the latest in a series by the Urban Institute analyzing the impact of the Massachusetts health reform law. Findings show that despite the state's economic recession Massachusetts has maintained record low levels of uninsured and access to needed health care has improved. Additionally, disparities in coverage and care have been eliminated or narrowed. Solid public support for the health reform law continues. This report is based on the 2009 Massachusetts Health Reform Survey (MHRS), which has tracked the impact of the law annually since 2006.

This policy brief based on data from the 2009 Massachusetts Health Reform Survey shows that women have achieved significant gains in insurance coverage and in access and use of health care since health reform was implemented in Massachusetts. The gains were particularly strong for subgroups of women who had lower levels of coverage and poorer access prior to reform, including lower-income women, women of minority race/ethnicity, and women without dependent children.

This report, written in conjunction with senior staff at the Center for Health Law and Economics, examines the phenomenon of enrollees cycling on and off state health insurance programs, specifically MassHealth and Commonwealth Care.

In August 2009, legal immigrants who have been in the United State for fewer than five years lost their eligibility for health insurance coverage under Commonwealth Care. They now receive coverage under the Bridge Program. In December, the BCBSMA Foundation brought together grantees, government officials, advocates, and health insurers for an informal discussion about how and why these changes were made, and how to improve coverage for legal immigrants.