Don't blame state's fiscal woes on health overhaul, study says

Massachusetts' trailblazing health care overhaul has increased state spending by about $88 million a year, according to a study released today by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a nonprofit business research group.

Given that the number of residents with health insurance has increased by more than 432,000 since 2006 -- Massachusetts now has the lowest rate of uninsured in the nation -- the annual cost has been "relatively modest and well within early projections of how much the state would have to spend to implement reform," the study concludes.

Massachusetts leaders accomplished this feat, the study says, by essentially encouraging more employers to offer their workers health insurance.

Under the law, most residents face a hefty tax penalty if they do not have coverage, and most employers also face fines if they do not provide the benefit and contribute at least 33 percent toward monthly premiums for their full time workers.

The study said earlier fears of huge cost overruns from the centerpiece of the 2006 law -- a subsidized health insurance program called Commonwealth Care for low- and moderate-income residents -- proved to be untrue.

It said that sharp climbs in initial Commonwealth Care enrollment was not a sign that the state had grossly under-counted the uninsured population, but a sign of the "extraordinary success" in enrolling people much faster than anticipated.

The full study can be found here.