Affordability standards adopted under Massachusetts universal health care law

The Connector has adopted affordability standards which will lead to health care insurance coverage for over 99% of Massachusetts residents (see NY Times article and WBUR story posted on WBUR’s CommonHealth blog). 

CommonHealth commenters have been giving a lot of flak on behalf of those who are not covered, noting correctly that (a) there’s still a significant number of uninsured folks, (b) the funding for this social experiment is coming out of individuals’ pockets, and (c) health care coverage will be less affordable next year, and thus more people may be outside the big tent.

It’s too soon to call the Massachusetts experiment a failure; in fact, thus far, it looks to me like an extremely successful experiment in social engineering.  Of course it’s all coming out of our pockets, and of course I’d like to see more people covered nest year, not fewer.  Meanwhile, things are better this year than they were last year in terms of coverage, and it looks like the groundswell of support for this issue will not let up — neither here in Massachusetts nor in the rest of the country.

Update 4/13/07:  Check out the usual treasure trove of details over at A Healthy Blog.

— David Harlow