Number of uninsured residents in Massachusetts has dropped 19% over the past two years

The number of uninsured residents in Massachusetts has dropped 19% over the past two years, according to results from a state survey released on Monday, the Boston Globe reports.

The survey, conducted from February through August, finds that 6% of adults and children, or 372,000 individuals, had no health coverage, compared with 7.4%, or 460,000, in 2004. The percentage of uninsured children fell to 2.5% from 3.2%, and the number of uninsured adults under age 65 had dropped to 8.7% from 10.6%, according to the survey. Gov. Mitt Romney (R) and other state officials credit the rising number of insured residents to the addition of 58,000 new jobs and the state's expansion of Medicaid. The gains "appear to have preceded" the July passage of a law that will require most Massachusetts residents to be insured by July 2007. The state will subsidize premiums for the lowest-income residents. Amy Lischko, commissioner of the state division of Health Care Finance and Policy, said, "If there are fewer people who require subsidies, that can only be good news." Romney said in a statement, "Early phases of health care reform are bearing fruit." According to the Globe, if the figures from the state survey are confirmed by U.S. Census Bureau data due on Tuesday, "it could make the task of insuring all residents easier." Although the state survey results and the federal census numbers often vary because of differing surveying methods, the two "usually agree on whether the numbers are headed up or down," the Globe reports.

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According to the Globe, "some advocates for the uninsured and health policy specialists said they were surprised by the magnitude of the drop shown by the survey," particularly because national figures show that the percentage of employers offering health insurance benefits is falling. The Massachusetts survey finds that 83% of residents get coverage through their employer, compared with 79% in 2002. John Holahan, a health policy analyst at the Urban Institute, said, "The economy has improved but not that much." Others hope the census report will clarify some of the "puzzling" results from the state survey, including a rise in the number of black non-Hispanic residents without insurance, the Globe reports. "That makes no sense at all," John McDonough, executive director of Health Care for All, said. "When you're increasing Medicaid rolls, that should help African Americans," he added. Nancy Turnbull, president of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation questioned the accuracy of the state survey. "As we have more undocumented immigrants living in Massachusetts, it is becoming more difficult to survey people," she said (Kowalczyk, Boston Globe, 8/29).