MassHealth, Massachusetts’ Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), is the cornerstone of health care coverage and access in the state. It provides health insurance coverage and care for more than a quarter of Massachusetts’ residents, including families with children who have complex health needs, aging adults, low-income workers without employer-sponsored health insurance and people with disabilities.
Manatt Health, in partnership with the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation and its Massachusetts Medicaid Policy Institute, has prepared a five-part series of issue briefs and companion infographics describing MassHealth’s impact on the health and finances of its members, families and communities, as well as on the wide variety of stakeholders and sectors outside the traditional health care realm that benefit from the program, including:
- The commonwealth’s schools and school‐aged children, teens and young adults
- The behavioral health care system, addressing how MassHealth provides coverage, access to and delivery of services across the full behavioral health care continuum
- Justice-involved persons, describing how MassHealth supports reentry into the community
- The state’s economy and businesses, including how MassHealth supports working families, reduces uncompensated care costs and draws federal funds into the state
MassHealth Impact Series | Welcome to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (bluecrossmafoundation.org)
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation’s press release about this series can be found here.
Click below to view each issue brief and companion infographic.
As the second-largest insurer in Massachusetts, MassHealth touches and helps—directly or indirectly—millions of people and families across the state. The critical role that MassHealth plays in Massachusetts’ communities, and the lives of its residents, is significant and far reaching.
In this issue brief, Manatt Health describes MassHealth’s role in the state’s near-universal rate of health insurance coverage, health equity, access to preventive care, better health outcomes for the state’s most vulnerable people and financial stability for low-income individuals and families.
Click here to read the full issue brief and here to download the companion infographic.
Authors
As the source of health insurance coverage for more than four in ten children in Massachusetts, MassHealth plays an important role in ensuring the health and well-being of the state’s low-income children and young adults under age 21. Access to these critical health care services has a substantial positive impact on children in the commonwealth, including those with special health care needs, by improving their long-term physical and behavioral health and educational attainment.
In this issue brief, Manatt Health describes the role MassHealth plays in helping Massachusetts’ children and young adults thrive, paving their way to a better future.
Click here to read the full issue brief and here to download the companion infographic.
Authors
Massachusetts is a national leader in driving improvements in coverage and access to health care services—the commonwealth has had the highest insurance coverage rate in the country for more than a decade. Yet many residents continue to struggle with mental health conditions and/or substance use disorders.
In this issue brief, Manatt Health discusses MassHealth’s central role in delivering behavioral health care services to low-income residents while advancing reforms to the commonwealth’s broader behavioral health care delivery system.
Click here to read the full issue brief and here to download the companion infographic.
Authors
People of color are disproportionately represented in Massachusetts’ prisons and jails, a trend that points to pervasive structural racism in the criminal justice system. People leaving incarceration are particularly vulnerable to poor health outcomes. Since people of color are disproportionately incarcerated, the health risks associated with being justice-involved only compound the wide-ranging and long-standing health inequities in the state.
In this issue brief, Manatt Health discusses the role MassHealth plays in the continuity of care for justice-involved people, highlighting MassHealth policies and programs designed to connect formerly incarcerated people with the health coverage, health care and social services they need to improve their health and decrease their risk of being recriminalized.
Click here to read the full issue brief and here to download the companion infographic.
Authors
Massachusetts prides itself on its strong and dynamic economy. The state frequently lands in the top ten when state economies are compared and ranked. MassHealth contributes significantly to the commonwealth’s economic strength by generating extensive economic activity, drawing in large amounts of federal funding, acting as a critical source of revenue for health care organizations and supporting the workforces of today and tomorrow.
In this issue brief, Manatt Health explains the many roles MassHealth plays in the Massachusetts economy, benefiting all families in the state as well as health care providers and the commonwealth’s workforce and employers.
Click here to read the full issue brief and here to download the companion infographic.
Authors