mortality decreased by 2.9 percent in Massachusetts and by 2.4 percent in the state’s white populations after the implementation of the comprehensive health reform known as Romneycare, a state-run health insurance program that provided the intellectual framework for the ACA. Sommers wrapped up his findings by arguing that more health insurance roughly correlated with less death because insurance “leads to increased coverage, and such coverage leads to better access and more utilization of clinical services, including office visits, with resulting gains in self-reported health status.”2
