Care Beyond Coverage is the Foundation's major policy initiative. Care Beyond Coverage studies non-coverage-related barriers to accessing health care. Our goal is to identify the most significant barriers to care and develop actionable policy solutions to address these barriers. Target areas include affordability, care coordination and continuity, provider capacity, and promoting equity across all domains of the health system.

Related Publications

• Health Reform in Massachusetts: An Update as of Fall 2009 Summary of Key Findings
  June 08, 2010
  This comprehensive chartbook describes key findings from the latest Urban Institute report analyzing the impact of the Massachusetts health reform. Data is based on the fall 2009 Massachusetts Heath Reform Survey.
• Health Reform in Massachusetts: An Update as of Fall 2009
  June 08, 2010
  This report is the latest in a series by the Urban Institute analyzing the impact of the Massachusetts health reform law. Findings show that despite the state's economic recession Massachusetts has maintained record low levels of uninsured and access to needed health care has improved. Additionally, disparities in coverage and care have been eliminated or narrowed. Solid public support for the health reform law continues. This report is based on the 2009 Massachusetts Health Reform Survey (MHRS), which has tracked the impact of the law annually since 2006.
• The Impacts of Health Reform for Women in Massachusetts
  June 02, 2010
  This policy brief based on data from the 2009 Massachusetts Health Reform Survey shows that women have achieved significant gains in insurance coverage and in access and use of health care since health reform was implemented in Massachusetts. The gains were particularly strong for subgroups of women who had lower levels of coverage and poorer access prior to reform, including lower-income women, women of minority race/ethnicity, and women without dependent children.
• Accessing Children's Mental Health Services in Massachusetts: Workforce Capacity Assessment
  October 29, 2009
  This report is based on a survey of 1,982 mental health providers in Massachusetts including psychiatrists, psychiatric clinical nurse specialists, psychologists, social workers, mental health counselors, and marriage and family therapists. It estimates the need for children’s mental health services; assesses child and family mental health service delivery capacity; identifies variation in capacity, including variation by geography, linguistic ability, and cultural competence; and documents challenges to meeting current demand for services.
• Who Seeks Emergency Care And Why?: Data From Massachusetts
  September 24, 2009
  This policy brief based on data from the 2008 Massachusetts Health Reform Survey shows that while health reform in Massachusetts has succeeded in increasing health insurance coverage and access to care, use of emergency departments by working-age residents remains high. Those seeking care in EDs may have trouble accessing care in other settings. They are less likely to use a doctor’s office or private clinic as their usual source of care and they are somewhat less likely to report having a place they usually go to (other than the ED) when they are sick or need advice about their health. And frequent users of emergency rooms (those reporting more than three ED visits in a year) are a sicker, more disabled and chronically ill population than other adults in the state.
• Access to and Affordability of Care in Massachusetts as of Fall 2008: Geographic and Racial/Ethnic Differences (Revised)
  August 04, 2009
  This policy brief by Sharon Long of The Urban Institute measures geographic and racial disparities in access to health care in Massachusetts. The data in the brief comes from the third annual Massachusetts Health Reform Survey. This revised version of the policy brief, which was originally published May 28, 2009, reflects changes made after an error in constructing survey weights was discovered and corrected. These changes do not impact the basic findings and conclusions in the original policy brief with respect to geographic differences; however, it does lead to more evidence of racial/ethnic differences in the affordability of health care in Massachusetts.
• Testimony On Health Care Disparities For the Joint Committee On Public Health By The Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation
  June 09, 2009
  The Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation was invited by the Joint Committee on Public Health to offer testimony about health care disparities. Foundation President Jarrett T. Barrios and Foundation Associate Director of Grantmaking and Evaluation Miriam Messinger offered the following findings from the Foundation's policy research and grantmaking programs.
• Access To Health Care In Massachusetts: The Landscape In 2009. Presentation by John Snow, Inc. at 2009 Summit on Access.
  May 28, 2009
  Presentation made by John Snow, Inc. at the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation's annual Summit on Access May 28, 2009. The presentation summarizes a year of investigation into barriers to health care access that consisted of a literature review, focus groups, interviews with health access experts, and a survey of the newly-insured. This research is part of the Foundation's Care Beyond Coverage policy initiative.
• 2008 Annual Report
  May 28, 2009
  Care Beyond Coverage: The Next Generation of Health Reform