Massachusetts Health Insurance

How healthy is living
in Massachusetts?

Massachusetts is the fourth-healthiest state according to the United Health Foundation's 2012 comparison of health status across the 50 states.

The good news:

• Massachusetts has the lowest percentage of people lacking health insurance in the nation.
• Cancer deaths in the state have dropped from 206.9 deaths per 100,000 people to 184.4 per 100,000 people over the past 10 years.

The bad news:

• While Massachusetts has a very low rate of obesity among adults compared to other states, about 1.2 million people in the state are obese.
• Massachusetts ranks in the top ten for the percentage of ninth graders who complete high school in four years.

Best and worst category rankings for Massachusetts:

• Occupational Fatalities – 1st
• Lack of Health Insurance – 1st
• Primary Care Physicians – 1st
• Violent Crime – 38th
• Preventable Hospitalizations – 38th
• Binge Drinking – 40th

more details

• See the United Health Foundation's latest findings on Massachusetts.
• Trust for America's Health ia another source for key Massachusetts health quality findings. In addition, 2010's federal health reform, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), included the creation of a prevention fund to provide more than $16 billion over the next 10 years to invest in effective, proven prevention efforts, like childhood obesity prevention and tobacco cessation, and the site has a report on how it impacts Massachusetts here.

get local health results

State snapshot too large? Get county-by-county health rankings for Massachusetts, from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Population Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin.

Does Massachusetts have a health insurance high risk pool?

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Starting in 2010, Massachusetts started offering health care insurance coverage to residents through the federally established temporary high-risk pool program. To find out more about Massachusetts's participation, click here.

Risk pools are state-sponsored programs to help people with a history of medical problems in their family to purchase coverage. These pools are for people who can afford to buy health insurance, but are not able to get underwritten in the private market because of a pre-existing health condition. These programs can vary significantly from state to state in price, benefits and number of people served. Often insurance companies doing business in the state are required to contribute to the pool to keep it in the black. In the best cases, they allow people to be able to switch jobs or become self-employed without the fear of losing their health insurance coverage. Read more about risk pools here.

Non-profit sources of health insurance information for Massachusetts

• The Foundation for Health Coverage Education's mission is to provide simplified public and private health insurance eligibility information in order to help more people access coverage. Here is its guide on how to find health insurance in Massachusetts.
• The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is tracking the progress of health insurance reform in each state. Its page for Massachusetts can be found here.
• The National Committee for Quality Assurance is a private, non-profit organization that, among other things, provides health care plan report cards for consumers. Search for Massachusetts health insurance plan report cards.

Massachusetts state government health insurance resources

Health Connector — Massachusetts State Health Insurance Exchange —  The first-in-the-nation state health insurance exchange.

Children’s Medical Security Plan —  For children under the age of 19 who are Massachusetts residents at any income level, who do not qualify for MassHealth (except MassHealth Limited), and who are uninsured.

MassHealth Services —  MassHealth pays for health care for certain low- and medium-income people living in the state, including a program for individuals who are HIV positive. MassHealth also manages the Insurance Partnership for small businesses, the Children’s Medical Security Plan, Healthy Start, and the Special Kids/Special Care Pilot Program, cosponsored with the Department of Social Services. Read [...]

State produced health care consumer guides —  Publications on health insurance for consumers, as provided by the State of Massachusetts.

How did Massachusetts officials vote on health reform?

H.R.2: Repealing the Health Care Bill

#14

Date of Vote: 1/19/2011 Status: House passed 245-189, 1 not voting

HOUSE|SENATE

1/19/2011--Passed House amended. Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act - Repeals the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, effective as of its enactment. Restores provisions of law amended by such Act. Repeals the health care provisions of the Health Care and Education and Reconciliation Act of 2010, effective as of the Act's enactment. Restores provisions of law amended by the Act's health care provisions. [more]

Our
Pick

No (10)

• Michael Capuano
• Barney Frank
• William Keating

• Stephen Lynch
• Edward Markey
• James McGovern

• Richard Neal
• John Olver
• John Tierney

• Niki Tsongas