The state of health care reform in Massachusetts

Massachusetts residents are more likely to receive regular medical care since the passage of a state health care law in 2006 that requires individuals and small businesses to have health insurance or pay fines, however concerns continue about the costs of providing the benefit. Meredith B. Rosenthal, professor of health economics and policy at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), spoke about the issue on public TV station WGBH’s “Need to Know” program on June 1, 2012.

“Massachusetts is struggling with the same thing every other state in the nation is struggling with – forces that are causing health care spending to increase more rapidly than the rest of our economy, and causing this dilemma that we have now with the federal deficit and with state budget deficits,” Rosenthal said.

Rosenthal was among the health policy experts, physicians, employers, patients, and others who discussed the Massachusetts law on the show. The mandate expanded insurance coverage for low-income workers and children in the state, and set up a new way for individuals to buy insurance online. The program is similar to the individual mandate included President Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

View the WGBH program

Learn more

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HSPH faculty contribute to affordable care act brief (News at HSPH)

Department of Health Policy and Management