This afternoon, the Division of Health Care Finance and Policy released their latest installment of their quarterly report. Click here for the full report, Health Care in Massachusetts: Key Indicators. Much of this information is the same as the August edition; new data covers the number of uninsured, the cost of health plans and health plan and hospital financial performance. There is also new information in this report on individual health plan financial performance for 2008.
Massachusetts is now up to 442,000 additional people covered by health insurance since the beginning of health reform implementation, an increase in 3,000 from last quarter’s 439,000. With Commonwealth Care holding steady in this report, (though a decline will show up in the next quarter) and employer coverage dropping by 12,000, the increase this quarter is due to MassHealth and individual purchase (both up 8,000 with rounding).
We now have six months of data on the Health Safety Net volume and payments, and the downward trend is continuing. Compared with last year (Pool FY’07), the first two quarters of this year show an average decrease in HSN volume of 36% and in HSN payments of 38%. These numbers include both hospital and health center data.
Other facts of note: While the lowest-cost Commonwealth Choice bronze plan has increased slightly, the highest-cost plan price has decreased. Health plan profits margins and days in reserve continued to vary wildly, both between plans and as compared to the last report.
Lindsey Tucker
