Health Connector

State sets Health Connector rate increases assuming feds will keep paying mandated subsidies

By adamg - 10/12/17 - 10:48 pm

The State House News Service reports on an announcement today by the Massachusetts Health Connector to limit increases for "silver" plans to 10.5% for next year, rather than the 26% that would be required should the president just halt subsidies called for in the health-care law he has failed repeatedly to get repealed in Congress. "Copper" subscribers will see an average increase of nearly 14%, the Health Connector says, adding it is continuing to try to figure out what to do if the subsidies are held up.

Mass. Health Connector still sucks, frustrated - and now former - user exclaims

By adamg - 12/26/15 - 5:21 pm

Steve Garfield of Jamaica Plain explains why he's thrown up his hands and given up on the Mass. Health Connector after more than a month of trying to figure out, without success, why the state accepted his first payment for a new health insurer yet never sent it to that company. So with five days left before his new insurance was supposed to start, he's now dealing directly with the insurer: Read more.

War is hell. And so is the Massachusetts Health Connector. Still

By adamg - 8/26/15 - 12:05 am

Daniel Quinn chronicles what is now a 4+ month effort to fix problems with his Health Connector-based health insurance.

August 18. I need some medicine. So far I have not used my insurance for anything, I am just sending the government money, for no reason really when it comes down to it, gambling every month in an absurd game against my destiny. I decide to pick this medicine up at the local CVS, and learn that my insurance has been rendered “inactive.” I am refused the medicine unless I pay full-price ($400 for something that costs $25 with insurance). I feel like the hobbits returning to the Shire after it has been taken over by the dark wizard Saruman. That same day, I receive another fascinating bill that declares I owe (negative?!) -$300.41 for my dental plan (a plan that costs $34 a month, mind you), and $1005.15 for my health–an account for which I was overcharged nearly $700 but a month before.

Health Connector users get a few more days to pay

By adamg - 12/24/14 - 8:30 am

Although yesterday was the deadline for signing up for health insurance through the state Health Connector, the state has extended the deadline for paying for the first month's coverage until Dec. 28, the Boston Business Journal reports.

Oopsies: State gets own link wrong in promoting new Health Connector site

By adamg - 11/14/14 - 10:20 am

Normally, a typo wouldn't be such a big deal, but when you're talking about the new Web site the state says will fix all the problems in the old, broken Health Connector site at a cost of gazillions, yeah, it kind of is. Also, as Steve Garfield notes, when he pointed out the typo in a state tweet (the URL's missing an "o" in "connector"), the state did, well, nothing.

Anatomy of a national embarassment: How the first state with universal health insurance completely failed adapting to Obamacare

By adamg - 8/26/14 - 10:32 am

Ed Lyons analyzes, in great detail, the failure of the health-connector system in Massachusetts, the state that pioneered the very idea:

Yet somehow, no one was held accountable for the largest, most spectacular failure of state government in many years. On February 13, at a public Health Connector Board meeting, Executive Director Jean Yang broke down and cried about what had happened. Yet she, along with everyone else in the exchange project, never accepted responsibility, and she remains in charge to this day.