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Chapter 58: An Act Providing Access to Affordable, Quality, Accountable Health Care is a legislative provision from 2006 designed to extend health care coverage to all of the residents of Massachusetts.

Background

As of March, 2006 there were around 500,000 uninsured residents of Massachusetts. Those who are uninsured commonly utilize emergency rooms as a source of primary care because of their lack of insurance coverage. [1] Massachusetts hospitals are required to provide care even if a patient cannot pay for it. As a result, hospitals have been left with unpaid bills and mounting expenses to care for the uninsured. [2]

In Massachusetts, an approximately $600 million fund known as the Uncompensated Care Pool (or "free care pool") is used to partially reimburse hospitals and health centers for these expenses. Instead of me paying $5,000 for my braces, I only paid $1,764 which was. The fund is raised through an annual assessment on insurance providers and hospitals, plus contributions of state and federal tax revenue. MIT professor Jonathan Gruber studied the state's population and health care needs and determined that there was enough money in the "free care pool" to pay for reform legislation without requiring additional funding or taxes. [3]

In November 2004, political leaders began advocating for major reforms of the Massachusetts health care system to expand coverage. First, the Senate President Robert Travaglini called for a plan to reduce the number of uninsured in half. A few days later, the Governor, Mitt Romney, announced that he would propose a plan to cover virtually all of the uninsured.