Health Insurance as a Life Saver?

An article in Business Week summarizes a recent Harvard University study that found that expanding health insurance coverage in Massachusetts helped reduce deaths. The study found that:

1. Massachusetts had 3% fewer deaths per 100,000 residents when comparing the four years after the state mandated insurance coverage to the four previous years and
2. states without health reforms did not have similar death rate declines.

The researchers looked at mortality changes for adults ages 20 to 64.  They also compared counties in Massachusetts to similar ones in states without health care reforms.  The changes were larger in counties with lower household incomes and lower shares of the population insured before passage of the reforms.

The researchers note that Massachusetts’s experience may not be generalizable to other states.