Harvard Study: Mass. Health Reform Law Lowered Death Rates

BOSTON (CBS) — Harvard researchers estimate that Massachusetts health reform law has prevented some 320 deaths per year or, one life saved for each 830 people gaining coverage. WBZ NewsRadio 1030′s Diane Sterns reports  WBZ NewsRadio 1030WBZ NewsRadio 1030playpausejQuery(document).ready(function($) { cbs_audio_player_v2("audio-player-1"); });   A new study that now appears in the Annals of Internal Medicine says in the first four years after Massachusetts instituted health care reform in 2006, the mortality rate decreased by 2.9-percent. That percentage is compared to similar populations in states that didn’t expand health coverage. The state’s health care reform law has served as a model for the national Affordable Care Act. Benjamin Sommers, assistant professor of health policy and economics at Harvard School of Public Health and lead author of the study says the results are promising. “You have to be careful extrapolating, but there’s some reason to think Massachusetts’ health reform will resemble quite a bit what we’ll see nationally,” Sommers said. The study looked at mortality rates for ages 20-64 before and after health reform went into effect in Massachusetts, compared to similar counties in other states that had not enacted health reform. “The big picture is very similar but Massachusetts is not representative of what the country as a whole looks like; the population is different, there were higher ra...
Source: WBZ-TV - Breaking News, Weather and Sports for Boston, Worcester and New Hampshire - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: ACA Information Affordable Care Act Health Heard On WBZ NewsRadio 1030 Local Syndicated Local Watch Listen CBS Boston Diane Stern Dr. Ben Sommers Harvard HEALTH CARE REFORM HSPH Mass. Health Reform Law OBAMACARE Source Type: news