Here’s a great story about health care reform in action. Two weeks ago, a 63-year-old retiree walked into the offices of the Commonwealth Connector and became the first person in Massachusetts to purchase unsubsidized insurance coverage through the new organization. This man – let’s call him “Mr. P.” — retired early a few years ago, and purchased insurance under COBRA through his former employer. (COBRA is a federal program that gives individuals the option to continue health benefits provided by their employer or other group for limited periods of time under certain circumstances.) Now, his eligibility through COBRA is about to expire, and he will not qualify for Medicare benefits until he turns 65 two years from now. It’s just the kind of gap many people face at one time or another.
Before health care reform became law, Mr. P. would have had a small number of expensive choices. Today, he can choose from lower-cost plans for different budgets and circumstances. As it turns out, he chose a product of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts for himself and his wife. They were Blue Cross members under his COBRA plan, and did not want to interrupt their coverage or switch insurers. Under the new law, they didn’t have to.
While health reform has allowed Mr. P. and his wife to continue their coverage, it has also allowed nearly 120,000 people to get coverage, many for the first time in a long time. Nearly 53,000 of the poorest Bay Staters have joined MassHealth, thanks to expanded eligibility rules and an aggressive outreach program. About 69,000 people with low incomes have gotten financial help, on a sliding scale, to buy coverage through the Connector. And, as of May 1, hundreds of thousands like Mr. P., people who don’t have health insurance, can choose from dozens of affordable health insurance plans.
Of course, not everyone will jump in and sign up like Mr. P. did. To reach those who need more information or assistance, the state has funded an outreach campaign to let people know about their choices and responsibilities under the new law.
This outreach invites the remaining uninsured residents in Massachusetts to explore their options and make the right decision for their families. Public awareness campaigns will be far-reaching, diverse, and targeted to the many different people who are not currently covered. If it works as we hope it will, tens, or even hundreds of thousands of people will soon know the peace of mind that comes with a health insurance card: access to affordable, high quality health care.
Andrew Dreyfus is executive vice president for health care services at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and former president of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation
But incoming Foundation president Jarrett Barrios is only listened to by those covered under parental plans. When we’re over 25, we may get tired of living with housemates all the time–especially once our own grown-up plans are soaring into the 300.00 range.
Uggghhhhh
Mr. Dreyfus, listen to yourself. Have you no decency, no integrity, no shame for being such a high paid shill for the insurance industry??? You are but perpetuating a charade and it ain’t gonna last.
This reform law will harm a lot of people with its mandate to purchase UNAFFORDABLE POOR QUALITY INSURANCE. I encourage people to visit http://www.Mass.PNHP.org for details and to sign the petition against this reform sham.
It’s not all about, as Mr Dreyfus says: “…tens, or even hundreds of thousands of people will soon know the peace of mind that comes with a health insurance card: access to affordable, high quality health care.”
What he says is NOT the reality of this law. Just saying something does not make it so. Even with the excessive power and control that Mr. D and other medical-industrial complex executives have over our democracy and policy making these days, they cannot fabricate truth from misleading lies.
I am a nurse and the family member of someone who has chronic illness. Our family has been through horrible experiences, having to endlessly advocate for my sister, many times having to battle insurance company bean counters and faceless bureaucrats at hospitals in order to get my sister the care she needs and deserves. As a nurse I bear witness to the failings of the system, right alongside my up-close observation of the obscene amounts of wasteful spending on layers of bureaucracy, most of it created by the insurance industry to avoid or to shift costs to others.
Too many other families have been forced into these inhumane situations as well, when they should be able to focus on supporting their loved one to heal, or to live with their illness with as much quality of life as possible until they die.
A previous commentor on this blog points out an inconvenient truth about the new law that you sing the praises of so well (btw how much are they paying you to be a VP at MA BCBS, a company that enjoys the legal tax status of a public charity??? Perhaps Attorney General Coakley could look into that on behalf of the state’s taxpayers.)
From a previous commentor:
“the easy part has been achieved. As of April 3, 2007, 62,979 people were enrolled in Commonwealth Care. Sounds reasonable BUT of these…
52,528 (83% of total enrolled)- are in Plan Type 1 meaning they pay nothing. More importantly, 44,948 of these people were auto-enrolled from the Uncompensated Pool meaning enrollment only required flipping a computer switch.
The remaining 10,451 (17% of total enrolled)did pay premiums but most of these, 8,260 people, had the lower, mostly subsidized premiums of $18-$57/mo.
Most importantly, of the entire 62,979, ONLY 2,191 people enrolled on their own initiative paying the higher premiums of between $70 – $134/mo. This is 3% of the total enrolled. Sorta low in my opinion.
of the remaining 82,000 eligible for Commonwealth Care, most will be harder to enroll. They will need to pay higher premiums or are not immediately inclined to enroll. And getting the word out and convincing people about Commonwealth Choice – folks with UNsubsidized health coverage – they might be even harder to convince.
So, Mr. Dreyfus, please do not insult our intelligence. And I’ll be calling the AG’s office about your pay at BCBS, just to put things in proper context. I’ll share it here along with compensation data records on the BCBS “Foundation” that Senator Barrios has just accepted a high-paid offer to head up.
…Andrew Dreyfus is executive vice president for health care services at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and former president of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation.
Sickening.
To learn more about Healthcare for People, Not For Profits please visit the Alliance to Defend Healthcare and consider joining our work at http://www.DefendHealth.org
Thank you.