Even with Massachusetts leading National healthcare reform in 2007, plus the major advancements of the [[wp:Affordable Care Act|Affordable Care Act]] in 2010 Healthcare , healthcare is (still) so broken in the US. (I'm on a mission to fix it.)We spend more than anybody else on the planet, yet have higher mortality rates, and lack universal healthcare.
A couple points made in this article with regard to your personal health care data:
*Your hospital and doctors know more about you than you do.
Perhaps improving patient access to patient medical data would improve healthcare health care outcomes!
In the United States, individual health insurance is mandatory - or you will be fined when you file taxes. Of course everyone wants healthcarehealth care, so on the surface it's not too onerous to say that it's "mandatory". But, if you're not covered by an employer plan (because you were '''just laid off'''<ref>If you get laid off, check the Mass Health Connector for plans '''BEFORE''' signing up for COBRA - because the connector plans can be more affordable; and you're not eligible for connector plans if you're 'covered' by insurance (through COBRA).</ref>, self-employed, or work for a small employer with < 50 employees), then you must obtain health insurance on your own. It is rather insane to tie health benefits to employment when employment changes routinely - whereas healthcare health care is something that you want to be continuous, permanent, and stable over time.
==MassHealth==
[[File:MassHealth overview.png.png|alt=MassHealth overview|thumb|418x418px|Overview of MassHealth]]
To obtain your own healthcare health care insurance, you can get it through '''Medicaid''' and/or the [https://www.healthcare.gov/medicaid-chip/childrens-health-insurance-program/ '''Children's Health Insurance Program'''] (CHIP) ''if you qualify''. Both of those federal programs are known at the state level as '''MassHealth'''. Although these are Federal programs, they are run and administered at the state level and so costs are different in each state.
One of the nuttiest things about MassHealth is that you can get some services through MassHealth (e.g. long term services and supports; behavioral health like psychological study) that are '''not''' '''available''' through commercial insurance. So, you can find yourself trying to qualify for Medicaid or CHIP just to get services you desperately need - but get denied or find the process so lengthy and complicated that it doesn't serve the need. Getting these services at all can be extremely difficult, very expensive and definitely complicated and delayed. This is why so many kids have "meds" - it is super expensive (thousands of dollars out of pocket ''if'' you can find the service) to figure out what might be going on in your adolescent child's developing brain, but super easy to get a prescription and "see what happens".
*'''best option''' Make an appointment with a Certified Asistance Counselor (CAC), also called a 'navigator'. There are two agencies locally that are certified: '''[https://www.ajh.org Anna Jaques Hospital]''' (Newburyport), and the social services agency '''[https://pettengillhouse.org Pettingill House]''' (Amesbury) which has a food bank location in Salisbury.
==Affordable
HealthcareHealth care==Under the
bi-partisan Affordable Care Act (ACA), your employer's plan is considered "affordable" in 2024 if the lowest-cost plan (meeting the <abbr title="A health plan meets this standard if it's designed to pay at least 60% of the total cost of medical services for a standard population, and if its benefits include substantial coverage of inpatient hospital and physician services. Individuals offered job-based coverage that provides minimum value and is considered affordable aren't eligible for an Advance Premium Tax Credit.">minimum value standard</abbr>) costs less than 8.39% of your household's income. So, if the crappiest plan meeting minimum standards offered costs slightly less than 10% of your 'modified adjusted gross income', then it's affordable <ref>[https://www.mahealthconnector.org/esi-affordability-calculator ESI Affordability Calculator]</ref>.
For perspective, let's say you're single and look at a couple scenarios where your AGI last year was either 48,255 or 130K. The numbers are summarized in the table below.
Plan comparison [https://ma.checkbookhealth.org/hie/ma/2024/index.cfm? https://ma.checkbookhealth.org/hie/ma/2024/]
Healthcare healthcare plans are offered in "metallic" tiers like you're somehow winning medals in the Olympics instead of paying the world's highest costs for healthcare. The system is just another level of indirection. Personally, I think the lowest level of payout ('bronze') should start out at 80%, with additional tiers of 85, 90, and 95 - or even 100%. I mean why is it called 'platinum', better than 'gold', and only pays out 90%? Sounds like these plans are "platinum colored" rather than genuine platinum.
{| class="wikitable"
|+What Metal Tiers mean