A Massachusetts health reform survey released Wednesday found that even though a high percentage of residents have health care, many have faced challenges with affordability and access to proper medical treatment, according to a Wednesday press release.
The release stated that the Urban Institute and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation conducted the Massachusetts Health Reform Survey. According to the release, the results showed that more than one-third of adults with coverage went without receiving the medical care they needed in the past year.
Julie Burns, spokesperson for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, discussed the issues Massachusetts residents have had with health care affordability.
“The fact that 43 percent of insured adults report having problems with affordability is a significant issue, and one that’s going to require more research so we can understand the problem and come up with more solutions,” Burns said.
According to the release, these results were from adults experiencing poverty and severe or fair health conditions. Adults in these groups were twice as likely to not receive the treatment they needed compared to adults with higher incomes.
Audrey Shelto, president of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, discussed in the release how low-income residents were significantly impacted.
“These continued financial problems are disproportionately affecting our most vulnerable residents suggesting that simply having health insurance does not guarantee access to affordable care,” Shelto said in the release.
Dennis Dimitri, president of the Massachusetts Medical Society, talked about the impact of the lack of routine doctors in Massachusetts.
“We tend to have a physician population in Massachusetts more heavily weighted towards specialists and less heavily weighted towards primary care doctors, and that creates a problem for access,” Dimitri said. “The availability of physicians, particularly in primary care for patients, certainly impacts things, such as being able to get attention for chronic care conditions.”
Dimitri also discussed other factors that prevent residents from having routine care.
“A lot of the insurance people have now has relatively high deductibles or copays associated with it,” Dimitri said, “so although people maybe be protected against catastrophic events, they may not be able to access some more routine care because the copays or deductibles that their insurance plans include prohibit them if they have to pay for a lot of things out of pocket before they hit their deductible limit.”
The release stated that the study has been conducted yearly since 2006 and has shown a drastic increase in how many non-elderly adults have acquired health care insurance. This year, 95.7 percent reported having medical insurance at the time of the survey and 88.6 percent maintained insurance throughout the entire year.
Dimitri also pointed out the large number of residents who have health care in Massachusetts.
“We can be proud of the fact that in Massachusetts, we have done a pretty good job at making sure as close to 100 percent of the population are covered with insurance as possible, and we know that it is one of the major determinants to whether or not people access care,” Dimitri said.
Several Boston residents shared their experiences with Massachusetts health care.
Angel Rivera, 23, of Dorchester, said his health care has been canceled.
“I had MassHealth my whole life, but it got canceled for a year,” he said. “And within that year, I needed help from the hospital. I could not get any type of treatment until I got my MassHealth back, but even with it the cost is too much.”
Iris Diaz, 57, of Dorchester, said she thinks the cost of insurance in Massachusetts is too high.
“Some people don’t even have the money to cover insurance, and they are not getting the proper care they are supposed to get because of their insurance either,” she said.
Robbie Samuels, 41, of Roxbury, said he is grateful that his insurance has been consistent.
“I have been really fortunate my insurance has not changed,” he said. “I do think a survey every year is a really good idea to get a sense of what is happening to the consumers, because people make decisions in boardrooms and might not know the impacts that are happening on the ground to people dealing with this.”
