"The ruling this week by a federal appeals court that found the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate unconstitutional and the resulting uncertainty presents a real and dangerous threat to health care coverage and access for our patients.
The 25,000 physicians and medical students who comprise the Massachusetts Medical Society have supported the ACA and its myriad critical reforms benefiting patients and the health care system. We have longstanding policy that we advocate - on behalf
of our patients - for universal access to insurance coverage. Any decisions or actions that impede that access sabotages progress made toward improving the quality and value of care we are able to provide our patients, including 375,000 in Massachusetts
who risk losing health insurance coverage.
As an organization of physicians, we believe that access to affordable, equitable and quality health care is a basic human right. We take seriously our vow to do no harm to our patients. It is past time those who seek to undermine, blunt or altogether
eliminate laws that improve the health care and outcomes of our patients consider the harmful consequences their actions will bring.
We thank the Massachusetts Congressional delegation for their continued support of the ACA and the patients who rely upon it for access to quality health care. We remind the patients of the Commonwealth that our state still has the individual mandate
in place and urge those who have yet to enroll to do so by the January 23, 2020 deadline."
-Maryanne C. Bombaugh, MD, MSc, MBA, FACOG, President, Massachusetts Medical Society
