Health Insurance Coverage Is Just The First Step: Findings From Massachusetts

Abstract

As the rollout of coverage expansions under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) continues across the country, more Americans are gaining insurance coverage, with all the benefits that that implies in terms of health care access and financial protections. However, if, as President Obama has argued, affordable health care is a cornerstone of economic security for American families, findings from a survey of Massachusetts residents suggest that insurance coverage alone will not be enough. Since its 2006 health reform initiative, Massachusetts has had the nation's highest level of insurance coverage. But though there have been improvements in access to health care and health care affordability, insurance coverage has not eliminated the burden of high health care costs for Massachusetts families. Health care costs are a problem for many insured adults. In 2012, more than one-third (38.7 percent) of Massachusetts adults with health insurance coverage for all of the past year reported problems with health care costs, with the level much higher for low-income insured adults (41.6 percent for those with family income at or below 138 percent of the poverty line—the income eligibility standard for the Medicaid expansion under the ACA) and middle-income insured adults (49.5 percent for those with income from 139 to 399 percent of poverty—the income group targeted by the new health insurance Marketplaces). Insured adults in Massachusetts report going without needed health care, cutting back on other spending, reducing savings, and taking on debt to deal with health care costs.