Mass. Ranks Last In Health Care Enrollment
BOSTON (CBS) --- The Massachusetts health care system has been touted as the successful model for Federal Health Care Reform.
But new enrollment figures show the state ranks dead last in enrolling people since the federal law kicked in.
But Secretary of Administration and Finance Glen Shor says the statistics 'miss the point.'
Shor ran the state's health connector back in its pre-Obamacare heyday. But while he claims the new federal numbers understate their success in getting people covered, there is still work to do.
"It is certainly true that we have not been able to get people into coverage and keep them in coverage through the website in the way we would have liked," he said. "Our target and our challenge is principally to keep our people who are currently enrolled in health insurance in health insurance and frankly we are doing just that."
But that's cold comfort to customers who lost their plan due to the federal law and others, complaining of an array of website problems from enrollment confirmation to payment options.
"It's not all going through the website in the way we wanted, and we will fix that, but healthcare security is being maintained, and that's the goal," Shor said.
GOP Gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker, who once held Shor's job, says enough is enough.
Baker says the state should seek a presidential waiver from the federal law and go back to what was working in Mass., before the current problems multiply.
"Small businesses that are going to be renewing their insurance in April and in July and October are all going to get the bad news that they can't keep the coverages they had and they're gonna have to absorb significant rate increases to play by the federal rules," Baker said.
Meanwhile, Shor says it makes no sense to go back.
