Significant decline in deaths after Massachusetts' health reform

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is also known as Obamacare.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-05/hsop-sdi043014.php

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 5-May-2014


Contact: Marge Dwyer
Harvard School of Public Health
Significant decline in deaths after Massachusetts' health reform
Findings offer insights into population-level health effects that could occur under Affordable Care Act

Boston, MA — In the first four years after Massachusetts instituted comprehensive health reform in 2006, mortality in the state decreased by 2.9% compared with similar populations in states that didn't expand health coverage, according to a new study led by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers. They estimated that Massachusetts' health reform law, which provided near-universal coverage, has prevented approximately 320 deaths per year—one life saved for each 830 people gaining insurance.

The study—which provides new scientifically rigorous analysis of whether health insurance expansion can save lives—appears May 5, 2014 in Annals of Internal Medicine.

"Given that Massachusetts' health reform was in many ways the model for the Affordable Care Act, it is critical to understand the law's potential implications for population health," said Benjamin Sommers, assistant professor of health policy and economics at HSPH and lead author of the study. "What we found in Massachusetts after reform was a significant reduction in deaths from the kinds of illnesses where we expect health care to have the biggest impact, including infections, cancer, and cardiovascular disease."

-----

The researchers found that the decline in mortality was concentrated among causes of death most likely to be preventable or treatable with timely health care, and they found that Massachusetts counties with lower median incomes and a higher percentage of uninsured adults before the law was passed—areas likely to have experienced the greatest increase in access to care under reform—gained the largest health benefits. In addition, the decline in mortality was nearly twice as large for minorities as it was for whites.

The results also showed that after the expansion there were fewer adults in Massachusetts without insurance, fewer cost-related barriers to care, more outpatient visits, and improvements in self-reported health.

-----