To determine the effectiveness of Massachusetts’ 2006 health reform law, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the Urban Institute released a brief examining 2008 data on Massachusetts’ uninsured.  The brief found that over 85 percent of the state’s uninsured residents are between the ages of 19 and 64.  In addition, uninsured residents are more likely than the insured to be young, single, male, minorities, non-citizens, and non-proficient English speakers.  Furthermore, the uninsured have less education, a higher rate of unemployment, lower incomes, and greater financial stress.  The brief also found that 42 percent of the state’s uninsured might be eligible for the state’s Medicaid program, MassHealth, or subsidized coverage in the state’s Commonwealth Care program.  To expand coverage, the authors suggest better addressing the needs of 18 to 26 year olds and ensuring that communication materials are written at the fourth to eighth grade reading level.

From the report: In order to reach the remaining uninsured nonelderly adults in Massachusetts, we need a better understanding of who they are and where they live. Until recently, information about the characteristics of this group has been constrained by relatively small sample sizes in existing surveys—a problem that has intensified as the uninsurance rate in Massa-chusetts has dropped. 4 However, the American Community Survey (ACS) began collecting information on health in-surance status in 2008, providing a valuable new resource for understanding insurance coverage in the United States. This brief provides a new assessment of the nonelderly uninsured population in Massachusetts using the ACS.

Full report: Massachusetts Health Reform in 2008: Who are the Remaining Uninsured Adults? (PDF | 722.42 KB) 

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. (2010). Massachusetts health reform in 2008: who are the remaining uninsured adults? Long, S.K., Phadera, L. and Lynch, V.