A short but quite interesting item in Newsweek. Will coverage expansion under health reform boost costs, as some critics claim? A new study of hospital costs shows that Massachusetts managed to cover 93 percent of its population without excess cost increases. And FEWER people are using the ER for routine care. (Emphasis ours in the quote below):
A new study by the National Bureau of Economic Research is the first to track hospital costs in Massachusetts, where a 2006 law became a model for national reform. It finds that 93 percent of people in the Bay State are now insured. But despite an influx of patients, total hospital costs haven’t grown more than usual. New efficiencies probably helped: thousands fewer patients now use the ER for routine care or show up because of a preventable condition. And the average length of a hospital stay is down an hour per person. But University of Pennsylvania economist John Kolstad, who coauthored the study, speculates that the real heroes could have been insurers, who bargained with hospitals. If the same clout is exercised nationally, optimists may be right about reform’s cost savings.
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