Fewer people died in Massachusetts after the state required people to have health insurance, according to researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health.
In each of the first four years of the state law, 320 fewer Massachusetts men and women died than would have been expected. That's one life extended for every 830 newly insured residents.
Massachusetts passed its mandatory universal health coverage law in 2006 under then-Gov. Mitt Romney. The hope was that when people have health insurance, they would be more likely to get preventive care, go to the doctor when they become ill, and live longer.
Now there's evidence of that link, according to a study published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine. In the first four years of universal health insurance, the state's death rate dropped 2.9 percent when compared to similar counties outside Massachusetts that did not expand health coverage.
White residents are living longer, but the biggest improvement in life expectancy came for blacks, Asians and Latinos, whose death rates dropped 4.6 percent. Barbara Ferrer, executive director of the Boston Public Health Commission, says the study builds on prior research showing that health coverage is reducing income and racial disparities in Massachusetts. She's hopeful the state is on a path to eliminate health disparities altogether.
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