Major health insurance changes under consideration in MA

Massachusetts is looking at changing its health care payment system and the rest of the nation is watching, considering following suit. In this new system, instead of insurance companies paying for each procedure a patient has, they will instead have a total allowance for each patient. When that person's limit is hit, insurance will no longer provide coverage.

The insurance commission that developed this framework has yet to determine how the limits will be set. This article mentions different coverage for those with certain illnesses, but that still leaves the question of who will set the limits and which illness will fall into which categories. For those who fall into the "healthy" category, this should have little impact. For those of us with illnesses, however, we must now wonder if fewer tests will be covered, and whether we will still get a full year's coverage of expensive drugs, etc.

[Thanks to Julie M. for contributing this story!]