Massachusetts health care reform

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Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority

Connector Logo
Public authority overview
Formed	April 12, 2006
Type	Public-benefit nonprofit corporation
Jurisdiction	Massachusetts
Headquarters	Boston
Public authority executives	Kathleen E. Walsh (Secretary of Health and Human Services of Massachusetts), Chair of the Board of Directors Louis Gutierrez, Executive Director
Website	www.mahealthconnector.org

This article is part of a series about Mitt Romney
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The Massachusetts health care reform, commonly referred to as Romneycare,^[1] was a healthcare reform law passed in 2006 and signed into law by Governor Mitt Romney with the aim of providing health insurance to nearly all of the residents of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The law mandated that nearly every resident of Massachusetts obtain a minimum level of insurance coverage, provided free and subsidized health care insurance for residents earning less than 150% and 300%, respectively, of the federal poverty level (FPL)^[2] and mandated employers with more than 10 full-time employees provide healthcare insurance.

Among its many effects, the law established an independent public authority, the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority, also known as the Massachusetts Health Connector. The Connector acts as an insurance broker to offer free, highly subsidized and full-price private insurance plans to residents, including through its web site. As such it is one of the models of the Affordable Care Act's health insurance exchanges. The 2006 Massachusetts law successfully covered approximately two-thirds of the state's then-uninsured residents, half via federal-government-paid-for Medicaid expansion (administered by MassHealth) and half via the Connector's free and subsidized network-tiered health care insurance for those not eligible for expanded Medicaid. Relatively few Massachusetts residents used the Connector to buy full-priced insurance.

After implementation of the law, 98% of Massachusetts residents had health coverage. Despite the hopes of legislators, the program did not decrease total spending on healthcare or utilization of emergency medical services for primary care issues. The law was amended significantly in 2008 and twice in 2010 to make it consistent with the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA). Major revisions related to health care industry price controls were passed in August 2012, and the employer mandate was repealed in 2013 in favor of the federal mandate (even though enforcement of the federal mandate was delayed until January 2015).^[3]