McKinnsey Model Results on Impact of Individual Mandate

This is surprising:

McKinsey and Co., an international consulting company, estimates the number of people residually uninsured will be as high as 40 million in 2016. Dr. Robert Kocher, director of the firm's Center for U.S. Health System Reform and a former special assistant to President Barack Obama on health care, recently spoke with Kaiser Health News' Amita Parashar about the center's estimates and who might not get insured as the health law takes effect.

Massachusetts though also implemented a mandate and saw its uninsured rate drop to around 3 percent. What Lessons can be learned from the Bay State?

Massachusetts did a nice job on public education. By having the Boston Red Sox help publicize, by using a lot of different channels, they've reached much of the population that perhaps has less awareness about health care insurance and also did a great job of getting young people in. Overall they had a relatively better risk pool and better pricing than you get if they weren't as effective in that area. The plans on the exchange are also well-represented and easy to "shop" for – enrollment is quite fast and easy. I enrolled in a plan on the exchange as an experiment and was impressed at how easy and effective it was to make a choice. It narrowed the choices based on your ZIP code and various factors you put in, which made shopping simple.