A top state official says 9,000 residents have transferred from MassHealth to the Massachusetts Health Connector since April as part of the post-COVID Medicaid redetermination process.
“That’s a little bit more than we were even expecting for this time,” said Audrey Morse Gasteier, executive director of the Massachusetts Health Connector, on The Codcast. “The topline is it’s early days but we are seeing strong activity. The operations are holding.”
After a three-year hiatus brought about by COVID, April 1 was the start date for the redetermination process, which seeks to verify that those on Medicaid are entitled to receive it. Roughly 2.3 million Medicaid recipients need to be assessed, with early predictions estimating 300,000 residents on MassHealth could be dropped from the rolls. The big concern is that those who are dropped quickly find new coverage, which is why those affected are automatically told whether they qualify for health plans at the Connector.
Gasteier said most of the early movement to the Connector came from MassHealth recipients who were proactively updating their account information and learning they were going to lose their coverage. She indicated to Codcast hosts John McDonough of Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Paul Hattis of the Lown Institute that the transition went smoothly, but the bulk of redeterminations will come this summer and fall.
“There are some states that don’t particularly mind shedding folks off of their Medicaid rolls and aren’t particularly concerned where people land. That’s obviously not the case with Massachusetts,” Gasteier said. “We have 97 percent of our residents in coverage. We don’t want to see backsliding on that. We don’t want to see people losing their coverage and becoming uninsured.”
The 97 percent coverage rate is the highest in the nation, but Massachusetts hasn’t been able to trim it more. “We think about this every day. That last 3 percent has been a challenge,” Gasteier said.
She said the uninsured group is made up primarily of young Hispanic males, most of them immigrants. And about half of them had coverage at some point, which is why the churn caused by the Medicaid redetermination process is worrisome.
The Connector, one of 17 state-run health care exchanges (the rest are managed by the federal government), offers a one-stop shop for every type of health care coverage, including subsidized coverage for income-eligible residents. Nearly 250,000 people use the Connector, and a quarter to a third of them qualify for subsidized plans.
“We make the entire market available to you in an organized, curated way so you can make informed comparisons between coverage options,” Gasteier said. “It’s the only place people can get help paying for coverage.”
Cost remains a concern, Gasteier said, with family coverage costing as much as $25,000 a year. “It’s just untenable,” she said. “It is not where it needs to be and the pain that families across the Commonwealth are feeling we see constantly in data about rising costs. It’s just a stranglehold on individual households, on small businesses, and others and really feels like it’s approaching an emergency level.”
BRUCE MOHL
FROM COMMONWEALTH
Wind farm developers seek relief: Big decisions are looming on offshore wind, as more and more developers say the power purchase agreements they signed are no longer viable because of changing economic conditions. States need the wind farms to have a chance of meeting their climate change goals, but giving in to the demands of the developers could set a dangerous precedent and translate into much higher prices for electricity ratepayers.
– Gov. Maura Healey has sent conflicting signals on how to handle the situation, but offshore wind developers say the procurement process she has laid out for next year gives them a way to move forward.
– Most officials and advocates on Beacon Hill favor giving leeway to the wind farm developers because offshore wind is critical to meeting the state’s climate change goals. But not everyone is on board. “My question is who’s looking out for the ratepayers,” said Sen. Michael Rodrigues of Westport, the chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee. “Everybody’s worried and concerned and wanting to protect and bend over backward for the developers. What about the people who are going to pay the electric bills?” Read more.
OPINION
Tolls the answer: Jack Corrigan suggests tolls could play a key role in securing the money needed to repair the Cape Cod bridges. Read more.
Drawing parallels: Defense attorney James Doyle looks to air traffic control for ways to improve police response to 911 mental health calls. Read more.
Careful planning: Union officials Tim Fandel and Andrew DeAngelo say the clean energy transition requires careful planning. Read more.
Apprenticeships key: Union officials Shamaiah Turner and Sean McGarvey say union apprenticeships offer a solid, debt-free career path. Read more.
FROM AROUND THE WEB
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
City Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune emerged as the consensus-seeking leader on the Boston City Council who was able to get beyond the contentious redistricting squabbles to pass a new map of district council seats. (Boston Globe)
ELECTIONS
Allegations of racism and other inappropriate behavior from 2007-2009 surface about Haverhill mayoral candidate Scott Wood Jr., who decries the leak of what he describes as an inaccurate 2013 pre-employment background check for a police officer’s job. He says the leak is the work of his opponent in the mayor’s race, City Councilor Melinda Barrett. (Eagle-Tribune)
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
With fewer major events to bet on, sports wagering in Massachusetts trends down in May to $450 million. (Salem News)
There are suddenly a glut of summer rentals available on Cape Cod, a puzzling reversal of the usual situation facing would-be vacationers there. (Boston Globe)
A food co-op is coming to Dorchester, and its scheduled opening next month will make it the only such store in the city, which has been without one since Harvest Co-op closed in Jamaica Plain five years ago. (Boston Globe)
EDUCATION
Two teachers at O’Bryant School of Math and Science pen a piece opposing the proposed relocation of the school from Roxbury to West Roxbury. (Boston Herald) Globe columnist Joan Vennochi calls the move a bad idea that should be shelved.
Thousands of teachers in the state are potentially facing non-renewal of their contracts because they were working under emergency licenses that have expired with the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency. (New Bedford Light)
CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS
True-See Allah, the director of community engagement and strategic partnerships at the Suffolk County district attorney’s office, has been put on leave as the office reviews allegedly antisemitic remarks he made in 2016 on an internet radio show produced by followers of the Nation of Islam, whose leader, Louis Farrakhan, has a history of virulent antisemitism. (Boston Globe)
MEDIA
Three men are facing federal charges in connection with harassing and intimidating two New Hampshire Public Radio journalists following an article they worked on detailing allegations of sexual misconduct by the head of the state’s largest network of addiction treatment services. (Boston Herald)