A combination of longstanding systemic failures and recent federal policy changes threaten to exacerbate health care access challenges and unravel Massachusetts’ near universal health insurance coverage. In response to this crisis, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Massachusetts Foundation convened a work group of business and health leaders to align on the core health care system problems facing the state and to identify policy solution areas to address the identified system challenges. A new report summarizes the outcomes of that work group.
The report outlines five core, interconnected problems that the work group agreed must be solved to protect coverage and improve access to care: coverage loss, system cost growth, consumer affordability, workforce shortages, and administrative burden. It highlights five work group-identified policy solution areas to address these challenges and offers a framework for decisionmaking on these policies that lays the groundwork for continued collaboration among Massachusetts policymakers and stakeholders.
The identified policy solution areas are:
- Building a more durable system of health coverage and financing for low-income people,
- Using state regulatory authority to drive health care payment toward value across payers and reduce overall cost growth,
- Developing uniform, statewide standards where applicable, and shared administrative connectivity across payers and providers,
- Funding additional clinical training (e.g., state sponsored residency programs, scholarships, expanded loan forgiveness) and other incentives with a focus on primary care and behavioral health, and
- Using public and philanthropic funding to expand programs that provide free or low-cost care to uninsured people using volunteer medical providers as a stopgap for addressing access gaps while systemic solutions are implemented.
This report is intended to guide a second phase of work, in which public and private partners collaborate to develop, model, and implement policies that will end systemic barriers to care, address health care affordability, and put the health care system on a sustainable path as a critical next chapter in health reform.
To download the report, click here.