To: J_F_Shepard who wrote (23469 ) 3/24/2012 5:29:57 PM From: Brumar89 Read Replies (1) | Respond to Romneycare is working pretty much as advertised. The number of people without insurance has dropped sharply, the quality of care hasn’t suffered, and the program’s cost has been very close to initial projections. [35] [36] [36] [37] citation needed ] The reduced state payments anticipated that by reducing the number of uninsured people Commonwealth Care would reduce the amount of charity care provided by hospitals. [38] Commonwealth Care faced a short-term funding gap of $100 million and the need to obtain a new three-year funding commitment from the federal government of $1.5 billion. [39] [40] citation needed ]. According to the DHCFP's quarterly Key Indicator reports, 89,000 people bought healthcare insurance directly as of June 2009, up from 40,000 in June 2006. The number of people with group insurance in Massachusetts has held steady at around 4,400,000 since passage of the health care reform law, according to the DHCFP's quarterly Key Indicators reports available on its website. One outcome has been the unavailability of coverage by many insurers previously doing business in Massachusetts and the inability of anyone who has been uninsured for more than 62 days except in a short window in part of August and September each year. It is possible to be refused insurance by any carrier in the State's Connector plans for up to 11 months, leaving some people uninsured for extensive periods of time. The American Journal of Medicine , “Medical Bankruptcy in Massachusetts: Has Health Reform Made a Difference?”, compared bankruptcy filers from 2007, before reforms were implemented, to those filing in the post-reform 2009 environment to see what role medical costs played. The study found that: 1) From 2007 to 2009, the total number of medical bankruptcies in Massachusetts increased by more than one third, from 7,504 to 10,093; and 2) Illness and medical costs contributed to 59.3% of bankruptcies in 2007 and 52.9% in 2009. The researchers note that the financial crisis beginning in 2008 likely contributed to the increased number of bankruptcies, and Massachusetts' increase in medical bankruptcies over the 2007-2009 period was nevertheless below the national average rate of increase. Still, the researchers explain that health costs continued to go up over the period in question, and their overall findings are “incompatible with claims that health reform has cut medical bankruptcy filings significantly.” [ 41][42] Boston Globe reported that more than a thousand people in Massachusetts had "gamed" the mandate/penalty provision of the law since implementation by choosing to be insured only a few months a year, typically when in need of a specific medical procedure. On the average, the Globe reported, these part-time enrolees were paying $1200–$1600 in premiums over a few months and receiving $10,000 or more in healthcare services before again dropping coverage. [43] en.wikipedia.org
