Great Job, But There's Work to Do

Massachusetts achieved near-universal health insurance coverage with its ground-breaking 2006 health reform legislation (Chapter 58) and has maintained the lowest level of uninsurance in the nation ever since. Uninsurance in the Bay State was down to only 2.5 percent in 2015 following the rollout of the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA), as reported in a recent Health Affairs article by the two of us and colleagues at the Urban Institute and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation. While expanding coverage to nearly 600,000 additional Bay Staters since 2006 is worthy of celebration, there is still work to be done.