Twenty years after Massachusetts passed landmark health care reform legislation that gave the state the highest rate of insurance coverage in the country, the leading players behind the law gathered in the same storied meeting hall where the 2006 bill was signed to celebrate their uncommon achievement.
HEALTH CARE AT 20
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Massachusetts health care reform met the moral moment
Living out the Brandeis credo to be a laboratory for democracy, we showed a path to providing health care coverage for nearly all residents
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We declared that access to health coverage should not be left to chance or circumstance
Two decades after making health care history, Massachusetts must now face unfinished work on affordability, primary care access, and behavioral care
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We solved the health care access challenge, but are failing miserably to control costs
The business community backed the 2006 law on the promise that the state would address costs and spending — a promise that has gone largely unfulfilled
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Chapter 58 has made health care unaffordable for families and small businesses
We need an honest reckoning with the shortcomings of Massachusetts health care and what it would take to address them
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The Massachusetts Health Connector has been a resilient — and flexible — foundation for a bold experiment
Cost and affordability concerns, along with federal retreat on Affordable Care Act funding and policy, present big challenges as we enter our third decade
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Our history-making reform extended coverage to immigrants. That is now under threat.
Despite Massachusetts’s inclusive policies, structural racism and legal status discrimination have consistently undermined immigrants’ access to care, creating barriers that persist even for those who have coverage.