Public Health Insurance Exchanges: The Massachusetts Experience

The CEO of Tufts Health Plan, James Roosevelt, is wondering whether to offer insurance products on the Massachusetts Connector, the first U.S. exchange. He wonders if he should enter these uncharted waters at all. And, if yes, with a broad network or a narrow network product. Complicating the decision is that he is the most politically visible scion of the Roosevelt family. Franklin D. Roosevelt, the four term U.S. president, had long espoused the universal coverage this Connector enabled. But was it the right thing for the insurance company he led? The health care reform act of 2010 introduced exchanges on which health insurance could be purchased. This case describes the first such Exchange, created in Massachusetts in 2006.