With hundreds of thousands of Bay Staters expected to lose their health coverage due to federal policy changes, industry leaders and state officials mapped out broad strategies Wednesday to combat a looming surge in uninsured residents that’s unfolding amid skyrocketing health care costs.
Around 300,000 residents will lose coverage through MassHealth and the Massachusetts Health Connector, said Audrey Shelto, CEO of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation. New Medicaid work requirements and more frequent redetermination requirements that will take effect in 2027 under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act are “projected to double the rate of uninsurance” in the commonwealth, Shelto said.
“This law makes it unbelievably harder to qualify for MassHealth, to get enrolled in MassHealth, and to stay enrolled in MassHealth,” Shelto said at the Health Policy Commission’s annual hearing on cost trends, which this year veered into discussion of projected coverage trends…