Claim: The Massachusetts health care plan is "wildly unpopular" among state residents.
Verdict: REFUTES

Retrieved passages:
title: Healthcare disparity in Massachusetts
text: an emergency department visit. Health equity has two parts - unhealthy populations, and access to healthcare once those populations fall ill. Lower-income families oftentimes cannot pay the out-of-pocket costs associated with healthcare in Massachusetts. Under former Governor Mitt Romney, Massachusetts passed comprehensive healthcare reform intended to cover nearly all of its residents. Massachusetts health care reform successfully covered approximately two-thirds of then-uninsured residents, but significant barriers to access of health care still exist. The primary factor affecting access to healthcare is out-of-pocket cost. In a 2010 study, 34.5% of respondents reported that they had difficulty obtaining care due to the

title: Massachusetts health care reform
text: percent of state residents being covered by employers, 16.4 percent by Medicare, and 16.6 percent via public plans such as Commonwealth Care. The state's Secretary of Health and Human Services, JudyAnn Bigby, said, "Massachusetts' achievements in health care reform have been nothing short of extraordinary. With employers, government and individuals all sharing the responsibility of reform, we continue to have the highest insurance rate in the nation." In June 2011, a "Boston Globe" review concluded that the healthcare overhaul "has, after five years, worked as well as or better than expected." A study by the fiscally conservative Beacon Hill Institute

title: Massachusetts health care reform
text: to offer free, highly subsidized and full-price private insurance plans to residents, including through its web site. As such it is one of the models of the Affordable Care Act's health insurance exchanges. The 2006 Massachusetts law successfully covered approximately two-thirds of the state's then-uninsured residents, half via federal-government-paid-for Medicaid expansion (administered by MassHealth) and half via the Connector's free and subsidized network-tiered health care insurance for those not eligible for expanded Medicaid. Relatively few Massachusetts residents used the Connector to buy full-priced insurance. The healthcare insurance reform law was enacted as Chapter 58 of the Acts of 2006 of

title: Health care reforms proposed during the Obama administration
text: policymakers said that it was unlikely that a coverage mandate alone could solve the problems of emergency room crowding and overuse. In August 2009 the Boston Globe reported that Massachusetts had "the most expensive family health insurance premiums in the country." Premiums in Massachusetts increased by 40 percent from 2003 to 2008, compared to a national average increase of 33%. The report did not break out the amount of the increase since 2006, but as the Massachusetts reforms are often taken as a model for national reform, "advocates on various sides of the issue said the report underscores the urgency

title: Massachusetts health care reform
text: Boston Medical Center HealthNet, Fallon Community Health Plan, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Health New England, Minuteman Health, Neighborhood Health Plan (a new plan following the co-op model introduced with PPACA), Network Health, and Tufts Health Plan. The primary features of each plan are illustrated in this table based on the data provided at the Summary of Benefits & Coverage located within the Plan Information section of the Individuals and Families portal. The source to the below list of available plans is via the Massachusetts Health Connector. By comparison, Commonwealth Care insurance had either zero or $250 deductibles (depending on which

title: Massachusetts health care reform
text: program. A 2011 view of the data, released by the state in 2013, shows the number of people receiving employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) in Massachusetts has decreased by approximately 500,000 people (about 8% of the state population) since the enactment of the Massachusetts health insurance law in 2006. (The state of Massachusetts stopped putting out regular information on various types of insurance enrollment altogether between 2011 and 2013; prior to 2011, it released such data quarterly. In 2013, the state released 2011 data.) The latest U.S. Census data on health care insurance types in Massachusetts was released in September 2012, and

title: Massachusetts health care reform
text: Massachusetts health care reform The Commonwealth of Massachusetts passed a health care reform law in 2006 with the aim of providing health insurance to nearly all of its residents. The law mandated that nearly every resident of Massachusetts obtain a minimum level of insurance coverage, provided free health care insurance for residents earning less than 150% of the federal poverty level (FPL) and mandated employers with more than 10 "full-time" employees to provide healthcare insurance. The law was amended significantly in 2008 and twice in 2010 to make it consistent with the federal Affordable Care Act. Major revisions related to

title: Healthcare disparity in Massachusetts
text: out-of-pocket cost. Even once they had seen a primary physician, 15.4% reported not seeing a specialist due to out-of-pocket cost. In 2006, Massachusetts passed an expansive health care reform bill. The law had three key components aimed at combating healthcare inequality - mandating that every citizen has a minimum level of insurance coverage, providing free health care insurance for residents earning less than 150% of the federal poverty level and mandating employers with more than 10 "full-time" employees to provide healthcare insurance. Healthcare disparity in Massachusetts Healthcare disparity in Massachusetts refers to the issues in access to, and treatment of,

title: Massachusetts health care reform
text: paying $1,200–$1,600 in premiums over a few months and receiving $10,000 or more in healthcare services before again dropping coverage. A study conducted by the Urban Institute and released in December 2010 by the Massachusetts Division of Health Care Finance and Policy stated that as of June 2010, 98.1 percent of state residents had coverage. This compared to 97.3 percent having coverage in the state in 2009 and 83.3 percent having coverage nationwide. Among children and seniors the 2010 coverage rate was even higher, at 99.8 percent and 99.6 percent respectively. The breakdown of insurance coverage consisted of that 65.1

title: Massachusetts health care reform
text: plan includes preventive office visits with higher copayments, but would not include emergency room visits if the person was not admitted. The new plan covered abortions (both elective and medically necessary) in the heavily Catholic state. With the implementation of PPACA in 2014, those citizens acquiring insurance through currently available Massachusetts Health Connector plans, will need to re-enroll or select a new plan, given the new guidelines stipulated by PPACA. Approximately 100,000 Massachusetts residents who received free or highly subsidized CommonWealth Care insurance, will be moved to Medicaid. The number of available plans under the Affordable Care Act that will

title: Massachusetts health care reform
text: dental benefits to poor residents on the Medicaid program, and providing health coverage to senior and disabled legal immigrants not eligible for federal Medicaid. The legislature promptly overrode six of the eight gubernatorial section vetoes, on May 4, 2006, and by mid-June 2006 had overridden the remaining two. The enacted statute, Chapter 58 of the Acts of 2006, established a system to require individuals, with a few exceptions, to obtain health insurance. Chapter 58 had several key provisions: the creation of the Health Connector; the establishment of the subsidized Commonwealth Care Health Insurance Program; the employer Fair Share Contribution and

title: Massachusetts health care reform
text: began offering Commonwealth Care on November 1, 2006. Coverage for people above 100% of poverty up to 300% of poverty began on February 1, 2007. As of December 1, 2007, around 158,000 people had been enrolled in Commonwealth Care plans. Initial bids received by the Connector showed a likely cost for the minimum insurance plan of about $380 per month. The Connector rejected those bids, and asked insurers to propose less expensive plans. New bids were announced on March 3, 2007. The Governor announced that "the average uninsured Massachusetts resident will be able to purchase health insurance for $175 per

title: Robert Moffit
text: feature story detailing Moffit's criticisms of the Clinton proposal. Meanwhile, he called for a consumer-driven health care policy providing tax credits to help people buy health insurance of their personal choice. Recently, Moffit's team helped develop Massachusetts' health insurance reform initiative in 2005. The Massachusetts plan developed a new system that would allow employees in small businesses to choose their health plan through a statewide "health insurance exchange." The exchange was one of the first in the country to provide a market-based approach to health care, enabling individuals to own a private and fully portable health insurance plan and take

title: Political positions of Mitt Romney
text: that he was "willing to vote for things that [he was] not wild with". As governor of Massachusetts in 2006, Romney proposed and signed into law a private, market-based reform that ensures every Massachusetts citizen will have health insurance, without a government takeover and without raising taxes. The law secured near-universal health care coverage. The legislation requires health insurance for all state residents, provided a plan is available to the individual that deemed affordable according to state standards. Employers with eleven or more employees are mandated to offer approved insurance plans for employees. Romney vetoed eight sections of the legislation,

title: Massachusetts health care reform
text: Care Today) Coalition introduced a bill that expanded MassHealth (Medicaid and SCHIP) coverage and increased health coverage subsidy programs and required employers to either provide coverage or pay an assessment to the state. The coalition began gathering signatures to place their proposal on the ballot in November 2006 if the legislature did not enact comprehensive health care reform, resulting in the collection of over 75,000 signatures on the MassACT ballot proposal. The Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation sponsored a study, "Roadmap to Coverage," to expand coverage to everyone in the Commonwealth. Attention focused on the House when then-Massachusetts House Speaker

title: Massachusetts health care reform
text: would have qualified for Commonwealth Care can get very similar benefits for about the same price. The implementation of healthcare insurance reform began in June 2006, with the appointment of members of the Connector board and the naming of Jon Kingsdale, a Tufts Health Plan official, as executive director of the Connector. On July 1, MassHealth began covering dental care and other benefits, and began enrolling children between 200% and 300% of the poverty level. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approved the state's waiver application on July 26, 2006, allowing the state to begin enrolling 10,500 people

title: History of health care reform in the United States
text: already in short supply in Massachusetts. Other states, while not attempting to insure all of their residents, cover large numbers of people by reimbursing hospitals and other health care providers using what is generally characterized as a charity care scheme; New Jersey is an example of a state that employs the latter strategy. Several single payer referendums have been proposed at the state level, but so far all have failed to pass: California in 1994, Massachusetts in 2000, and Oregon in 2002. The state legislature of California twice passed SB 840, The Health Care for All Californians Act, a single-payer

title: Health insurance mandate
text: lowest percentage of people without health insurance. Before the law was passed, per capita health care costs in Massachusetts were the highest for any part of the country except D.C. From 2003 to 2008 (three years prior and two years after enactment) Massachusetts insurance premiums continued to outpace the rest of United States, however the rate of growth year to year for Massachusetts has slowed as a result of the law. New Jersey adopted an individual healthcare insurance mandate effective January 1, 2019, whereas other states provide community rating and guaranteed issue without mandates. Romney's success in installing an individual

title: Massachusetts health care reform
text: to operate an expanded Medicaid program. Under the existing waiver, the state was receiving $385 million in federal funds to reimburse hospitals for services provided to the uninsured. The free care pool had to be restructured so that individuals, rather than institutions, received the funding. Then-U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) made a special effort to broker a compromise between the Republican Governor and the Democratic State Legislature. In Fall 2005, the House and Senate each passed health care insurance reform bills. The legislature made a number of changes to Governor Romney's original proposal, including expanding MassHealth (Medicaid and SCHIP) coverage

title: Massachusetts health care reform
text: the need for this fund. In 2006, MIT economics professor Jonathan Gruber predicted that the amount of money in the "free care pool" would be sufficient to pay for reform legislation without requiring additional funding or taxes. In November 2004, political leaders began advocating major reforms of the Massachusetts health care insurance system to expand coverage. First, the Senate President Robert Travaglini called for a plan to reduce the number of uninsured by half. A few days later, Governor Romney announced that he would propose a plan to cover virtually all the uninsured. At the same time, the ACT (Affordable