![]() ![]() In truth, only about 11 percent - or 46,000 - of enrollees in the early Connector days bought non-subsidized “Commonwealth Choice” coverage online the rest got subsidized coverage that required personal assistance from live agents. Still, the state’s march toward near-universal coverage through the Connector won widespread applause, including the 2009 Innovations in American Government Award from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Combined with premium subsidies for lower-income residents and a mandate on individuals, Massachusetts showed that a viable, bipartisan path to near-universal coverage could be successfully legislated and implemented. The Connector, a governmental health insurance marketplace created by the 2006 Massachusetts Universal Health Care Law (aka Romne圜are) and reinvented via the ACA (aka ObamaCare) demonstrated to the nation between 20 that a state could reform and expand its market for individual health insurance by enabling consumers to make apples to apples comparisons and buy coverage in a user-friendly, web-based environment. Today, the Connector is a marquee success for the still-youngish Baker administration - an ironic twist for a Republican governor who was never a fan of the ACA, Barack Obama’s marquee presidential achievement. By early February 2016, 201,000 state residents had successfully enrolled in plans for 2016, including 36,000 new members. The launch of the third open enrollment since the 2013 implementation of the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA) was less than a minute away with lots on the line. Would months of hard preparation avoid another website calamity that could jeopardize health insurance for hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts residents?Īs the website opened at midnight and kept humming without a hitch throughout the night and following days, sighs of relief were heard across the Commonwealth as a major governmental embarrassment was averted. Among them was Louis Gutierrez, executive director of the Massachusetts Health Connector, appointed the previous February by newly inaugurated Gov. AT 11:59 PM on October 31, 2015, about 20 nervous state officials and contractors hunched around computer terminals in a non-descript office in the Charles F. ![]()
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