As the cost of health care skyrockets across the U.S., residents in many states are mobilizing to push their state governments to enact laws creating a single-payer system as a way of making health care more affordable for everyone. This movement is especially gaining traction in Massachusetts.
Auden Cote-L’Heureux, an economics expert at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) at Amherst, says Americans pay a lot more for health care yet health outcomes are worse in the U.S. when compared to the stats from comparable countries. For example, he says Americans paid an average of almost $15,000 in 2024 for each person, and life expectancy in the U.S. is 79. In the UK, where life expectancy is 81, the average health care cost per person was $7,000 in 2024.
With health insurance costs rising each year in the U.S., Massachusetts residents have decided to take matters into their own hands as they see state and federal authorities not doing enough to address rising health care affordability concerns.
Dozens of municipal councils around the state, such as Northampton and Springfield, as well as cities like South Hadley, Easthampton and Amherst have voted in favor of resolutions showing support for a bill in the state legislature seeking to create a single-payer system in the state. Momentum is building, and state lawmakers are being constantly bombarded with calls to act quickly on this matter.
Deborah Klemer, the vice president of the city council in Northampton, says insurance costs for council employees have increased by an average of 10% each year for the past few years. This “insane” cost, she adds, is stressing council budgets and it is getting to a point where such costs become unaffordable given the limited resources available to the city council.
It is notable that concerns about rising costs of health care are non-partisan. In many districts that supported resolutions calling for the single-payer system, voters in support exceeded 64% and some districts had support close to 90%. Such huge support was recorded even when many districts in the state voted for Trump during the presidential elections.
As these grassroots movements gain traction and cause change to state laws, the impact could be felt at the federal level, and possibly trigger meaningful change at the national level. This trend is something that entities like Astiva Health that offer health coverage in other states will be watching because it could usher in a major shift in the way the health care system in the country operates.
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