The insurance challenge for coastal states like Massachusetts has been a vexing one. Inflation and tariffs are scrambling rebuilding costs, and the rise in climate-driven natural disasters has contributed to a recent increase in private insurers not renewing policies and the state’s insurer-of-last-resort seeing a growth in the number of enrollees.
insurance
Posted inHealth Care
Health insurance woes reaching ‘inflection point,’ commissioner says
The escalating use of low-value care — medical services that are unnecessary for patient care — was identified as a contributor to health care spending growth. One in four commercially insured residents received at least one low-value service in 2024.
Posted inHealth
Policy Points: Takeaways from the 2026 Medicaid Summit
As the agency navigates how to minimize coverage losses, cope with federal funding cuts and keep MassHealth members informed, the 2026 Medicaid Summit on Tuesday brought together state government policy experts and researchers from around the country to make sense of the impacts of the nearly one-year-old federal One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Posted inHealth Care
Health insurers seek double-digit premium hikes on small businesses, again
A year after Gov. Maura Healey dubbed health insurance premium increases “simply unsustainable,” carriers are once again pursuing sizable rate changes that will fuel ongoing debate about the state’s affordability.
Posted inGovernment
How would proposed age restrictions on social media use actually work?
Massachusetts may join a growing number of governments here and abroad looking to force stricter rules for social media companies with young users.
Posted inHealth or Consequences
Regulating insurance as health care costs surge
On the monthly Health or Consequences episode of The Codcast, John McDonough of the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and Paul Hattis of the Lown Institute talk with Michael Caljouw, the state commissioner of insurance. They discuss new regulations for insurers, concerns about the stability and solvency of the Massachusetts health insurance system, and insurer consolidation.
Posted inEnvironment
Mass. insurer of last resort wrestles with thorny questions around affordability
Now, after the FAIR Plan saw its largest single-year jump in 2024 in new enrollees in two decades, the plan will need to decide this year whether it wants to raise the rates it charges — something that hasn’t happened in 20 years.
Posted inExplainer
What is the Massachusetts FAIR Plan, the state’s insurer of last resort?
The increased FAIR Plan policies and rising home insurance prices in the private market across New England both reflect and tell the climate story, since insurers are the arbiters of risk.
Posted inEnvironment
Mass. home insurer of last resort sees spike in enrollment
Massachusetts’s home insurance market, officials and experts stressed, is in a much better place than other parts of the country. Still, signs of change are emerging.
Posted inEnvironment
Boston missed its own deadline for applying to a FEMA program. Residents are footing the bill.
Across Massachusetts, more than 300 communities – including Boston – aren’t reaping the benefits of the FEMA program, known as Community Rating System. It’s led to residents in some municipalities collectively paying hundreds of thousands of dollars per year in flood insurance costs that could have been avoided.
