This UPDATED (October 2023) edition of the MassHealth: The Basics chart pack provides new data on MassHealth enrollment and spending from the most recent state fiscal years available. The chart pack features a high-level overview of the delivery systems that serve MassHealth members. It also highlights MassHealth’s latest reform efforts, which include initiatives to advance health equity and to improve timely access to behavioral health care.

The chart pack provides comprehensive yet accessible data and explanations of program updates to help policymakers, administrators, advocates, and academics better understand the complex MassHealth program. It is made available in PDF and PowerPoint formats to facilitate its use in presentations.

This UPDATED (October 2022) edition of the MassHealth: The Basics chart pack provides new data on MassHealth enrollment and spending from the most recent state fiscal years available. The chart pack also features a high-level overview and status update on the state’s delivery system reform efforts, including a summary of the key elements of MassHealth’s latest 1115 demonstration waiver extension that was approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on September 28, 2022.

The chart pack provides comprehensive yet accessible data points and program updates to help policymakers, administrators, advocates, and academics better understand the complex MassHealth program. It is made available in PDF and PowerPoint formats to facilitate its use in presentations.

MMPI recently hosted a webinar to review facts and data about MassHealth eligibility, costs, and recent reforms from the latest edition of MassHealth: The Basics. Click here to access a recording of this webinar and a copy of the webinar slides.

This UPDATED (October 2020) edition of the MassHealth: The Basics chart pack provides new data on MassHealth enrollment and spending from the most recent state fiscal years available, as well as a high-level overview and status update on the state’s delivery system reform efforts. The 2020 chart pack features a summary of the many temporary policy and programmatic changes that MassHealth quickly implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The chart pack provides comprehensive yet accessible data points and updates on the complex MassHealth program that will be useful to policymakers and administrators, as well as advocates and academics. It is made available in PDF and PowerPoint formats to facilitate its use in presentations.

This UPDATED (July 2019) edition of the MassHealth: The Basics chart pack provides new data on MassHealth enrollment and spending from the most recent state fiscal years available, as well as a high-level overview and status update on the state’s delivery system reform efforts. The 2019 chart pack features a summary of the program’s impacts on access to care and health outcomes and new data highlighting the role of MassHealth in supporting the low-income workforce. The chart pack provides comprehensive yet accessible data points and updates on the complex MassHealth program that will be useful to policymakers and administrators, as well as advocates and academics.

Some of the key information from the 2019 chart pack -- which is organized under three sections, Eligibility and Enrollment, Spending and Cost Drivers, and Reforms -- includes:

• MassHealth enrollment has been relatively stable for the past four years (2015-2018), hovering just above 1.8 million members. Notably:
  • More than 4 in 10 children in Massachusetts are MassHealth members; and
  • More than three quarters of non-elderly MassHealth members live in working families.
• MassHealth represents a significant portion of the state budget, but the majority of its spending is paid for with federal funding, and spending growth has moderated in recent years as enrollment has leveled off.
  • From 2013-2016, prescription drugs and home- and community-based long-term services and supports (LTSS) were the key drivers behind per-enrollee spending growth in MassHealth.
• MassHealth’s delivery system reform changes are well underway. Status updates are included on major initiatives:
  • Newly formed Accountable Care Organizations, which began full operation in March 2018, now have over 890,000 MassHealth members enrolled.
  • Launch of the Community Partners and Flexible Services programs to improve integration of behavioral health, LTSS, and social services.
  • Expansion of coverage for outpatient, residential inpatient, and community services to combat the substance use disorder crisis.

The chart pack is made available in PDF and PowerPoint formats to facilitate its use in presentations. A webinar to review this updated chart pack was held on October 29, 2019. A recording of that webinar is available here.

UPDATED (September 2017) chart pack produced by the Massachusetts Medicaid Policy Institute (MMPI), a program of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, in partnership with the Center for Health Law and Economics at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. This updated edition includes MassHealth enrollment as of May 2017 and spending from state fiscal year 2016. It is made available in PDF and PowerPoint formats to facilitate its use in presentations.

The Foundation hosted a webinar with author Bob Seifert from the Center for Health Law and Economics, University of Massachusetts Medical School to review the updated summary data on MassHealth enrollment and spending on Wednesday, October 11, 2017. Click here to access the webinar materials.

This chart pack provides updated MassHealth enrollment data as of March 2017.

This chart pack provides updated MassHealth enrollment data as of September 2016.

UPDATED (June 2016) chart pack produced by the Massachusetts Medicaid Policy Institute (MMPI), a program of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, in partnership with the Center for Health Law and Economics at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. This updated edition includes MassHealth enrollment as of January 2016 and spending from state fiscal year 2015 and is made available in PDF and Power Point formats to facilitate its use in presentations.

The Foundation hosted a webinar with authors Bob Seifert and Carol Gyurina from the Center for Health Law and Economics, University of Massachusetts Medical School to review the updated summary data on MassHealth enrollment and spending on Wednesday, June 29, 2016.

Click here to access the webinar slides.

This chart pack provides updated MassHealth enrollment data as of November 2015.

UPDATED (July 2015) chart pack, prepared by the Center for Health Law and Economics at the UMass Medical School, includes summary data on MassHealth enrollment and spending and is designed to support use of the charts in presentations. Updated edition includes MassHealth enrollment as of March 2015 and spending from state fiscal year 2014.

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 comprehensive chartpack features, in one easy-to-use resource, data and complete references on topics including Massachusetts health care spending trends, cost drivers, and variations in pricing, as well as key differences in health care cost trends between Massachusetts and the U.S. This chartpack pulls together many of the major findings and analyses from recent state and national research efforts including reports by the Massachusetts Center for Health Information and Analysis and the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, as well as analyses by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care.

This chartpack was originally assembled by the Foundation in collaboration with Amitabh Chandra at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Josephine Fisher at Amherst College, and updates have been made by Foundation staff. 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 chart pack regularly.

UPDATED chart pack, prepared by the Center for Health Law and Economics at the UMass Medical School, including summary data on MassHealth enrollment and spending. Designed to support use of the charts in presentations.

Chart pack, prepared by the Center for Health Law and Economics at the UMass Medical School, including summary data on MassHealth enrollment and spending.  Designed to support use of the charts in presentations.