Mass. residents react to ruling with relief - Boston.com

After the initial surprise that the mandate to buy insurance survived, political and industry leaders said the difficult work ahead to control soaring health care costs now will attract much greater national scrutiny â€" given that the state’s health insurance overhaul became the model for the national plan.

The upholding of most of the Affordable Care Act removes a distraction and uncertainty, and the leaders said they will sharpen their focus on passing a plan to improve care and cut costs now being negotiated in the Legislature behind closed doors.

The architects of the 2006 Massachusetts law felt more than a little honored that their first-in-the-nation strategy will be carried forward nationally.

Dozens of staff members at the Beacon Hill offices of the Massachusetts Health Connector, the agency that oversees the law and built the state’s online health insurance exchange, squeezed into a conference room Thursday morning to monitor online coverage of the court decision and anxiously surf their cellphones. When the news broke, executive director Glen Shor said he and others felt “immense pride.”

Andrew Dreyfus, chief executive of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, experienced a similar moment of exultation. “It feels like a clear validation of the framework we developed in 2006,” said Dreyfus, who worked for passage of the 2006 law as director of the insurer’s foundation.

“It will also give momentum to our effort to focus on cost and affordability, which is the next chapter,” he said. “The same way we set an example for the country on coverage, we can create a model around affordability.’’

The decision to uphold the central, and most controversial, provision of the federal law â€" the requirement that most individuals buy health coverage or pay a tax penalty â€" matters little to Massachusetts, since the state already has a similar mandate that has reduced the number of uninsured to about 2 percent. But a repeal of other portions of the law could have had a significant financial impact.