Massachusetts: Is Universal Health Care Working?

Massachusetts: Is Universal Health Care Working? in General Healthcare

Part of the reason health care costs are rising so quickly is because of those who have no health insurance.

Let’s say a person is uninsured and gets sick. But they can’t afford to go to a doctor for a check-up, so hold off on care as long as possible. Then the condition becomes bad enough that they have to go to the emergency room.

By federal law, emergency rooms are required to provide medical care regardless of ability to pay.

If a patient who visits the emergency room cannot pay, the hospital has to absorb the cost. Because hospitals can’t afford to provide free care, they raise prices for everyone else to offset the costs.

Those higher costs of emergency room care are in turn matched by an increase in health insurance rates. That’s because insurers have to offset the higher prices of hospital care.

So is the effect of the uninsured on health care costs.

With an estimated 46 million Americans without health insurance, health care costs and insurance rates are only expected to keep going up.

Now let’s look at one philosophy of universal health insurance coverage…

The idea is if more patients are insured, then hospitals and health care providers won’t have to provide as much “free” care.

In Massachusetts, where there is a health insurance mandate for all residents, one report showed an overall drop in emergency room visits.

The Massachusetts Hospital Association said visits to emergency room for free care dropped by 28 percent, reported the Worchester Telegram and the Associated Press.

“It demonstrates the whole philosophy underpinning of this — that people really want health insurance and will use it if they have it,” said Lynn Nicholas, who is president and CEO of the Massachusetts Hospital Association.

Proponents of universal coverage also argue people would get more routine and preventive care — catching symptoms early before they turn into expensive health conditions.

“Now we are seeing that shift away from where people showed up at emergency rooms for non-emergency care,” said Jon Kingsdale, executive director of the Health Insurance Connector Authority, which oversees the Massachusetts mandate.

So is the law working?

It has done a good job in getting more Massachusetts residents insured. But whether or not the law can reduce health care costs is still up for debate.

Recently, health officials announced premiums would increase for residents who have state-subsidized coverage. The premium increase is a result of an unexpectedly high number of residents enrolled in the state-funded plan.

“We’re ultimately working with a lot of uncertainty about the number of uninsured that remain out there in the population,” said Massachusetts’ secretary of administration and finance, Leslie Kirwan.

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