By Jocelyn Guyer
While we’ve all heard how successful Massachusetts has been in covering kids, a study out in the new edition of the journal Health Affairs looks at the success of health reform for adults in the state. Some highlights:
* 94.2% of non-elderly adults had coverage in 2010, compared to 86.6% in 2006 and 77.7% nationally.
* More than two-thirds of adults reported that they secured coverage through an employer. This is also up from 2006, allaying fears that public coverage would “crowd-out” employer-sponsored health insurance.
* Access to care has improved – adults were more likely to have a usual source of care and have had a health care visit. Importantly, these improvements were seen for preventive, specialist, and dental visits.
* Trips to the emergency room (including those for a non-emergency) also dropped between 2006 and 2010.
* 65% of adults reported their health was very good or excellent – an increase from 60% in 2006.
While coverage has become more affordable for many, health care costs still remain an issue for some. In 2010, 6% of adults reported high levels of out-of-pocket spending (down from 10% in 2006) and just over 13% reported that they did not get needed care due to cost (down from about 17% in 2006). Despite these drops, there has been no sustained improvement in the share of adults reporting problems paying medical bills.
In addition, although adults were less likely to report an unmet health care need in 2010 vs. 2006, there was an increase between 2009 and 2010. With 23% of adults reporting that they did not get the care they needed, often due to cost, it’s clear that the state needs (like the rest of the nation) to deal with the ever-increasing cost of care.
Despite the ongoing cost-containment struggles (which in all fairness, the state did punt on so as not to hold up the coverage components), the success in Massachusetts highlights the potential gains that could be realized through the Affordable Care Act (ACA).