Dive Brief:
- A new study in the Annals of Internal Medicine has found that the Massachusetts health reform law that accomplished near-universal health insurance coverage was associated with significant reductions in mortality.
- Researchers found that five years after the 2006 health reform law was put into place, they were able to attribute 4.5% fewer deaths to improved health care access. The researchers found that patients with health insurance have a 30% lower annual risk of death.
- However, broadening health insurance coverage is expensive. If a state spends $4,000 a year to help each additional person health coverage, it would cost about $3.3 million for every life saved, researchers said.
Dive Insight:
While seeing to it that nearly all residents had health insurance is expensive, the cost is similar to other public health interventions that save lives, researchers note. For example, the expense is similar to the cost of automobile child restraints, which cost several million dollars per life saved.