Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation Issues Five Key Priorities for Next Administration

BOSTON — Massachusetts’ historical achievements in bold and innovative healthcare policy have positioned the state as a national leader in transforming healthcare coverage, access, affordability, and quality. Yet, despite decades of progress, the COVID-19 pandemic made it impossible to ignore that not all Massachusetts residents are able to access, afford, or experience healthcare equally.

In early 2022, anticipating the election of a new governor and slate of legislative leaders, the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, in partnership with Manatt Health, solicited perspectives on health-reform priorities from a broad and diverse group of healthcare stakeholders, including consumer, provider, health plan, business, and labor representatives.

This report synthesizes the findings from these stakeholder interviews, describing five healthcare priorities for the new governor and legislative leaders to immediately pursue: addressing systemic racism and inequities in health, ensuring consumer affordability of healthcare, confronting the mental-health crisis for children and youth, improving the affordability of and access to long-term services and supports (LTSS), and solving severe healthcare workforce shortages, particularly in the paraprofessional LTSS and behavioral-health workforce.

The report explores each theme in detail and identifies specific action steps incoming state leaders can take to address these challenges. Click here to read the full report.