Essay on Massachusetts Health Reform

According to Chaffee, Mason, and Leavitt (2007) this act provides coverage for up to 32 million of the 45 million uninsured by 2010. It prevents insurance companies from denying coverage to those with pre- existing conditions and also inhibits these companies from removing coverage from people who develop serious illness (Open Congress, 2009). Moreover, it blocks insurance groups from applying annual and lifetime caps on coverage (Chaffee, Mason & Leavitt, 2007).

Universal health care coverage is a dream that the majority of Americans have had for many decades. It seemed that the dream could become a reality with a major effort under the Clinton administration in the mid 1990’s. This effort was spearheaded by the First Lady, Hillary Clinton, and would have established a universal health care system for the entire nation. Unfortunately, after years of work, the effort ended in failure due to trying to modernize and finance universal health care at the same time (Rodwin, 2003). When the current President, Barack Obama, campaigned in 2008, one of his cornerstone promises was to develop a healthcare system that would assure affordable healthcare for all Americans through the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obama Care. With only a slight majority of democrats in the Senate and a large majority of Republicans in the House, this would prove to be an uphill battle (Moore, 2014).

A newly implemented set of protections that apply to health coverage starting on or after September 23, 2010. The patient bill of rights was

First, the act addresses major reforms to undertake in the health insurance sector to improve access to quality health care. The age of dependent coverage increased to 26 years, limits on annual benefits eliminated and challenges faced by those with preexisting medical conditions in getting a cover addressed. In addition, insurance documentation became uniform to allow for comparison (McClanahan, 2012). Thus, more Americans can access an insurance cover without increasing premiums.

In order to make insurance affordable to all there were extensive private health insurance regulatory reforms, particularly in the small group and non-group markets, there were tax credits offered to the smallest lowest-wage employers for the purchase of health insurance, there were reductions in cost-sharing associated with recommended preventive care. For example if you signed up with a fitness center you can get a 50% discount on your insurance. The market exchange was established for the purchase of private coverage plus subsidies for the individual purchase of coverage and for the cost-sharing of the modest income. “The affordable care act also expanded the eligibility for the Medicaid program to all non-elderly with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level ($23,000 to $32,000 for a family of four in 2012) starting in 2014, which helped phase out the Medicare prescription drug benefit coverage gap, a.k.a. the “doughnut hole”.” To make sure that everyone is complying with the rule of everyone needs to have healthcare coverage there was a penalty set up for those that failed to comply. The penalty was if you did not have insurance by the set date you will receive a tax penalty that you will have to pay when filling your taxes. There are financial requirements that large- and medium sized

This new healthcare reform law aims to increase the number of Americans that are covered by health insurance and also to decrease the cost of health care. Under this new law everyone in America will have to get health insurance of some form.

Romneycare requires everyone to get health insurance through the state market place. Both this law, and the Affordable Care Act require businesses to cover all full-time employees. Also, both laws make dropping an individual due of preexisting conditions illegal. Since 2006 almost 90% of Massachusites are insured, and since 2006 Massachusetts has had surpluses in its budget (Kolesnikova). With this extra money, public service projects were preformed such as restoring the I93 tunnel and the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge. On a personal level, the law helps individuals and families who are struggling with money. Mary Flynn who has asthma normally paid $60 a month for her inhaler, after her insurance dropped her because of the asthma, she went to apply for RomneyCare. “I felt like they threw me a lifeline,” she said, adding that her inhaler now costs her just $3.50 a month. “It’s the best insurance I’ve ever had” (Kolesnikova). This state law, if properly administered on a federal level, would have similar positive affects nationally.

In the past what has hindered health care reform plans from being enacted were the issues surrounding how they were to be funded. When comparing the attempts of the Clinton administration, the current legislation developed by both the House and the Senate, and Britain’s National Health Service, it is in my opinion that my optimal health care reform plan be funded through taxes, cost-sharing, and fees. In order for this plan to be successful it must be economically feasible and be able to reduce overall health care costs.

The Affordable Care Act is a law that was enacted on the 23rd of March 2010. Regardless of the fact that it was put into place in 2010, there are still numerous aspects of the law being debated today. The law has several provisions that are expected to take effect between the year of 2010 and 2020 (Reid, 2012). Among the significant reforms in the law includes a clause prohibiting insurers from refusing people coverage due to some preexisting conditions. In addition, these companies should offer the same price for all clients who are in the same geographical location and are the same age. Another reform was that families that are in the poverty line should receive federal subsidies if they decide to buy insurance through an exchange. The government also created minimum standards for insurance policies. The government also established health insurance exchanges as platforms for comparison of different policies. The Affordable Care Act also has an individual mandate

The Massachusetts Health Care Act of 2006 was an attempt to give healthcare to all of the residents of Massachusetts. The law mandated that nearly every resident of Massachusetts obtain a minimum level of insurance coverage, provided free health care insurance for residents earning less than 150% of the federal poverty level and mandated employers with more than 10 "full-time" employees to provide healthcare insurance. The law was amended significantly in 2008 and twice in 2010 to make it consistent with the federal Affordable Care Act. Massachusetts ' recent health reform has decreased the number of uninsured, but no study has examined medical bankruptcy rates before and after the reform was implemented. These brief statements say a lot about the health care plan and what it was designed to do. The plan was created by Governor Mitt Romney in Massachusetts beginning in 2005. As a public figure, the people either adored him or despised him. With his plan to control health care in the state of Massachusetts, the success rate was then determined by his popularity throughout the state, with his ability to make the act a form of succession to meet the needs of the people of his state.

Since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010, there has been a continuous debate about the effects it will have on the United States economy. Many people argue that expanding insurance coverage for all people will create crippling cost burdens for the economy and taxpayers. While others believe that the ACA will in fact give the economy a much-needed boost. In 2006 as a measure to improve overall healthcare, the state of Massachusetts implemented the Health Care Insurance Reform Act. This paper looks at the positive and negative effects of the Massachusetts Health Care Insurance Reform Act (MHRA). Using a literature review of public health studies ranging from 2009-2012, I argue that there are both positive and negative effects of the Massachusetts Health Care Insurance Reform. While the Massachusetts Reform increased health insurance coverage for all citizens and decreased the number of uninsured citizens accessing emergency rooms, it also did very little to decrease already existing racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities among minorities and whites in the state of Massachusetts. Understanding the Massachusetts Health Care Insurance Reform Act may help in the goal of trying to achieve near-universal healthcare. This paper provides an understanding of the missing pieces in the Massachusetts Health Care Insurance Reform Act and constitutes a starting place from which to understand the Affordable Care Act.

Once the foundation of the U.S. health care system was reviewed, we began our study of the new regulations. The Affordable Care Act contained three main provisions. The first provision was expanding Health Insurance Coverage. Elements of the regulation included offering coverage to the vast majority of currently uninsured Americans by expanding access to Medicaid to cover all non-elderly individuals below 133 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL), and establishing state-based health insurance exchanges, which will offer Americans a range of private health plan options, with federal tax

As discussed in lecture (Paterniti, 2009) and in Oberlander’s analysis of the U.S. health care system, “any reform that threatens to alter the medical care arrangements of the insured is likely to provoke public opposition” (2003). Most likely, the insured are well off financially and/or politically powerful. These people, who are for the most part content with their current health insurance, would oppose

In Massachutettes, health plans wanted to eliminate “continuous open enrollment, assess the full annual penalty for any significant period of continuous un-insurance, impose waiting periods for certain services and bar consumers from buying in the merged market if they had access to employer sponsored coverage” (case study). Doing these things, the insurance companies hoped to lower premiums. Bill 2585 did pass but the law did not go as far as the insurance companies had hoped. It only “limited open enrollment in the merged market to twice a year in 2011 and once a year after that” (case study), which didn’t really help much. Due to loss in the small market group in 2009, health plans “planned double digit premium increases in 2010” (case study), but the government stepped in and put a stop to it. Even though the big name hospitals were driving up cost, the insurance companies were seen as the bad guys. This caused local plans to “record sizable operating losses for the first quarter of 2010 and had to draw on reserves to cover expected losses resulting from the rate rollbacks” (case study). The insurance companies, especially the smaller ones, suffered financially.

The affordable Care Act implemented in March of 2010 by president Obama reform the way health care was previously run in the United States. The law went into effect, which allowed many Americans who did not currently have insurance and health care coverage to the ability to purchase coverage and access to health care. “ According to the CDC “ the affordable care act of 2010 is designed to provide access to coverage for previously uninsured Americans “ Center of Disease Control (2014).