his lead in the republican presidential race. there's a flash point we are going to look at throughout this year on this show. that's his record as massachusetts governor, especially with regard to the signing of the law that's brought health care to nearly everyone in the state of massachusetts. we know it put new requirements on businesses and individuals. if that sounds familiar, it's because many call it the model for obamacare. romney says he would repeal the federal law and let each state find their own solution. the supreme court is going to hear a case on whether the federal law is constitutional. if it takes full effect as scheduled in 2014, you might get a sense of how the law might change things if you look at massachusetts. you could do worse. see how things have gone there. take a look. in her mid-20s, jacqueline was working in her parents restaurant. like a lot of people her age,

she didn't think she needed health insurance. it was too expensive anyway. >> it was almost $700 a month. i said i'm going to have to go without it. >> in 2006, governor mitt romney put his name on a health care law. faced with a state requirement to have insurance or face a fine, she signed up. >> how much did it cost you? >> no money. >> you didn't have to pay anything? >> no. >> she was worried about a lump in her breast. she could afford testing. she went. they found something frightening. invasive breast cancer. >> at 27 years old, it doesn't run in your family. your whole life feels like it's crumbling on you. >> you cry? >> yeah, you say why me, then get over it and try to move forward in a positive outlook. >> she was fortunate. with her new insurance, she could afford treatment. she believes it saved her life. >> how are you?

>> since the law passed, the state says massachusetts went from 90% of the population covered to 98%. a big success. it brought big headaches. all told, the new law meant insurance coverage for 400,000 people. people like jacqueline. in order to do that, the money had to come from somewhere. that somewhere was big hospitals. for years and years they had been taking care of the poorest patients with the biggest problems. nobody is turned away? >> nobody is turned away. >> in 2009 boston medical center sued the state saying cuts could push them out of business. the state restored some of that money. for now, there's a truce. >> the state made a compact five years ago to provide access for all. we figured out how to provide the services, now working on ways to pay for them and transform it in a way. >> that hasn't been the only

bump in the road. getting almost everyone covered sounds great, but there is a downside. when you get insurance, you want to see a doctor. the problem is in massachusetts, as with many states, not enough doctors to go around. she works with a network of 15 clinics and three hospitals. with a flood of new patients she says they had to get creative. >> so it's not a doctor alone, there's a medical assistant, a nurse, a care manager, other people, a receptionist all of whom see themselves as care patients. >> two-thirds of the people in massachusetts support the law. as for the cost of medical care, it's gone up. but no faster than the rest of the country. m.i.t. economist helped design the plan and went on to help design the national health care

law as well. >> people wish health insurance was cheaper. a misunderstanding of the reform, it wasn't about lowering the cost of health insurance wasn't the goal. for people with employer insurance, it's about fixing it. for those people, prices have fallen 50%. >> it's hard to put a price on some things. >> it will be five years this july. >> jacqueline beat cancer and she's healthy now, back at work. and, she's in love with this guy, craig. they are getting married next month. joining me now from boston, massachusetts is governor duvall pat trick. he came into office when mitt romney left and has overseen the process for the past five years. thank you for joining us. >> it's great to be with you, thank you. >> so many questions about this and pele from around the country are digging in. let me start by asking this, you

know jacqueline. >> i do. >> how many people got covered like her because of the individual mandate? are you able to put a number on that? >> well, we have a 43% increase in the number of people with insurance today, sanjay because of the health reform in massachusetts. 98% of residents with health insurance. i don't think any other state can touch that. i love that you bring up jacqueline's story. policy only matters at the point where it touches people. you can see it's had a profound touch in her life and in the lives of so many other of our residents. it's one of the reasons it's so popular here. >> four out of five newly insured are getting government health coverage. they are subsidized or paid in entirety. the safety net is bigger, which is great, but expensive. are you able to continue down that path in massachusetts without breaking the bank? >> sure. in fact, you know, our system

here, like the system at the national level under the affordable care act is a hybrid system. it emphasizes private insurance purchased in the private sector. the expansion added 1% to state spending. the biggest challenge for us is a challenge that is natural. the premiums go up year after year. that's the next big chapter. we are going to crack that code. it made a lot of progress. premium increases averaging 17% or 18% two years ago. they are less than 2% today. they are going down. we are making great progress there as well. >> yeah, a lot of people paying attention to the increase in premiums. they hear you talk and look at their bills and see how their premiums went up. you made the point and we checked into it about how popular the plan is in massachusetts. it appears to be very popular. it's controversial in many other places around the country.

usa today has a story that the affordable care act is hurting the president in key states. if that is true, why is there a disconnect. how is it so popular in massachusetts and a national version of it so unpopular? >> i think there's been a concerted effort by one side to distort where the affordable care act is about. frankly, a weak effort on our side to talk about the many, many benefits. there are millions of young people that get to stay on their parent's health insurance today and have that security. you can't be thrown off your insurance when you need it most when you become sick. people aren't going to go bankrupt anymore if they have a serious illness. it was a serious issue here in the country before the affordable care act. the expense of expanding health care for those who need the subsidy is picked up by the federal government for most of the early years.

so, you have heard former governor romney speak on the campaign trail. politics is politics. no one knows this better than you. one of the things is repeal obama care. that's what you hear from him. massachusetts and the affordable care act have similar laws. what do you think of what he's saying? >> well, it amazing me that the governor who has always been a gentleman to me, by the way, would run away from something that's done so much good for so many people. what happened in massachusetts is happening across the country in a very, very positive way. >> governor, thanks so much for speaking with us. i have a feeling this is going to come up again this year. hopefully we can talk again. >> that woulde great. thank you. take care. up next, under the microscope, baby quest. help for couples who may have trouble conceiving. [ female announcer ] water was meant to be perfect.

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under the microscope this morning, infertility can be an emotional experience for men and women alike. sperm donation has been around for a long time, egg donation is relatively new. secondary infertility. that means the inability to carry a pregnant nan nancy to term. >> michelle and mike have a family they always wanted. it wasn't easy. at 30 she needed hormone technology to have their son. two years later, they had a hard time conceiving, so they tried hormone therapy and ivf, invitro fertilizizatio

fertilizization. >> it was stressful. >> after rounds of treatment, she had premature ovarian failure. she couldn't produce viable eggs and chose to use an egg donor. >> it was emotionally taxing journey. i knew that one day i would look back and forgot the struggle. and i did. i mean, it's hard for me to think about it now. but, you know, i mean, we have a wonderful family. i can't imagine it being any other way. >> the decision to use sperm or egg donation is a personal one. dr. peter says it's often the best solution since donor egg and sperm can cause -- >> 21 to 28, 29. >> so, a 40-year-old woman says i'm not making eggs or good

quality eggs anymore, so i'll take a donor egg. it has that 25-year-old's genetic material and you can combine it with sperm. is this something that happens a lot? >> yes. absolutely. in the united states, about 10% to 15% of all ivf is involving egg donation. >> 10% to 15%? >> yes. >> he says more and more families are choosing this route to have a family. >> they have a baby picture they can choose from and know most of the background history, what their genetic make-up in, their interest, maybe their education. >> you get to choose the eggs? >> they get to choose them. >> how much does that process cost? >> $16,500. that includes everything. >> a woman in her mid-40s is

pregnant, has a baby, is it almost assumed that woman had an egg donor? >> i think i had five women overall in 30 years that had a pregnancy at 45 with their own eggs. >> michelle and mike plan to share their conception stories with their children. >> it needs to be okay and not looked at as some weird thing to use alternate method. nontraditional ways to have a family. >> if we are describe iing in t years, hopefully it's like a visit to the doctor. it's so prevalent that the stigma is gone. it will help, too. it's nothing we have worried about. >> i tell you, doctors we met with say they have been able to achieve a 66% pregnancy rate with eggs. i it's about the same as fresh cycles they were doing before. something else i want to

point out as well, with fertility issues we seem to hear mostly about women. consider this reality. half of all couples having trouble conceiving is traced to the man. one man was told he would never father a child but refused to take no for an answer. steven and lindsey dreamed of being parents. >> we knew we wanted to have kids. it was important to both of us. >> they got married, bought a house and started trying for a family. lindsay was in her 20s and healthy. after a year, they hadn't gotten pregnant. >> it didn't cross my mind for 11 of those 12 months that it would be a male issue. finally, you know, said maybe you should go to the doctor. >> urologist dr. michael whit says male infertility is a

common problem. >> trying to figure how big of a problem it is. how big is it? >> probably 12% of men in general. though, all couples who struggle with infertility, half of those there's male contribution. >> it could be caused by genetics, irregular chromosomes, drug abuse. it's something as simple as an undetected cluster of veins. how is that making a man infer ti tile? >> it's like a ver kos vein you can get in your leg but it's around the testicle. you can fix it. it's a simple technique. in 80% of cases you get improved production and can enhance fertility rates 60% to 70%. >> a lot of people probably don't know that. it's a high likelihood it can be treated. infertility caused by obesity,

drug use and smoking can be reversed in men. more complicated cases like steven, male infertility is not necessarily the final word. when he went to see his doctor, steven was given devastating news. >> i walked in the office. he said you have cancer in the left testicle. you may have it in the right testicle, you will almost certainly never father children. >> he fought to save his life and fertility. he froze sperm, had surgery, under went chemotherapy. >> you try to will it to happen. it's, you know, at some point it feels out of your control. >> using his extracted sperm and lindsey's eggs, they created an embryo. today, steven is cancer free and he and his wife are 33 weeks

pregnant. >> to see her belly growing and seeing the heart beats is just, it blows your mind. you are like i can't believe they are in there. >> part of the reason they told us that story is because steve, in particular, hopes other men will hear it and realize for male infertility patients like him, there's hope out there. a tough, but interesting question. do you own your own dna? one court ruled you don't. that case is going to go to the supreme court. i'll tell you what it means. dad, why are you getting that? is there a prize in there? oh, there's a prize, all right. [ male announcer ] inside every box of cheerios are those great-tasting little o's made from carefully selected oats that can help lower cholesterol. is it a superhero? kinda. ♪ 8% every 10 years.age 40, we can start losing muscle -- kinda.

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you may not realize this and it's a stunning thing to think about, but of the nearly 28,000 genes in the human gene crow, nearly a third are patented. it's controversial, to be sure. and many people believe that the supreme court is going to weigh in on this. but here is to discussion what

it means for all of us, you, as well, dr. valley maureen rice. good to see you. >> nice to see you. >> thank you for coming. it is interesting. we talked about the breast cancer one and two genes the last time you were on the program. these genes can tell if you have an increased risk of breast cancer, but they have patented by a pharmaceutical company. first of all, how does some like that happen? >> what it means that it's patented is that they have actually isolated what we call the dna sequence of that gene and they have patented that because it was unique, based on the laws of the patent at that time. >> so it's genetic material, but it's essentially owned by this company now? >> well, it's not that they own our genes. what it is is that they own the sequence, the knowledge that goes with the sequence of what we described as the dna base payers. so they own the order of those

sequences, the knowledge that goes with that. they don't actually own the genes. they own the sequence. >> right. >> and the knowledge that went into creating that sequence. >> correct. >> so what does that mean? a lot of women say, i want to get that genetic testing. what does this patent mean for them? >> this patent means that pharmaceutical company is the one that has the exclusive rights to do the testing and sometimes they also have the exclusive rights for the methodology that goes with the testing. and so we really, in many cases, limit the ability of some women, if they can't afford to pay for that test, the ability to acquire that testing. >> if somebody has a patent, it probably means it will be more expensive for an individual woman. but what do you think of this? this is an area of expertise for you. is this a good idea? >> well, i think that patenting tenl is a good idea. because i know that that is definite that -- with what few.

as a scientist, i know research costs. when i'm doing my research, i look for investors, whether that's through nia or a pharmaceutical company. i know they also expect a return on investment. but i also know when i'm sitting across the from that patient and i understand her history and her risk profile, i want her to be able to have access to that test the it's available and i don't want anything standing in the way of that. i think we have to have a balance between the innovation of discovery and then also a balance between making these tests available to people. at an affordable cost. >> and we're talking about this with respect to this particular issue, but what you just said, i can it applies to science overall. fascinating stuff. thanks for being back. i always learn something when you're on the show. >> thanks for having me. >> thank you so much, dr. rice.

still ahead, chasing life through 100. i have a tip for you myself. [ man 2 ] yummy. i got that wrong didn't i? [ male announcer ] want great taste and whole grain oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios. enough plastic water bottles to stretch around the earth over 190 times. each brita filter can take up to 300 of those bottles out of the equation. [ click ] it's truck month! no. it's truck month! no. it's truck month! no. it's truck month! no. it's chevy truck month! definitely that one, boss. solid. let's try the other one again.

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something i want you to remember, harahachibu. it's part of how you chase life to 100. what it means basically is don't overstuff yourself. you know, they push their plates away when they're only 80% full. it makes a lot of sense. i've been doing this for years now especially when it comes to my own personal vice. push that plate away. follow me on twitter or facebook. you can get a sneak peek at next week's show. we're going to have a closer look at alzheimer's. it's the only cause of death among the top ten that can't be prevented, cured or hardly even slowed down. make an