In a new poll of Massachusetts residents who required significant medical care during the past year, 78% of respondents said the cost of their care was a very serious or somewhat serious problem. And 63% said that the problem has gotten worse over the past five years. The poll was conducted by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, and WBUR.
HSPH Professor [[Robert Blendon]], director of the Harvard Opinion Research Program, led the polling of Massachusetts residents who said they had a serious illness, medical condition, injury or disability requiring a lot of medical care, or spent at least one night in the hospital within the last year.
“When you just talk about universal coverage, you lose the fact that many people who have coverage are paying premiums that are very hard for them to pay,” Blendon told WBUR in a June 11, 2012 story. The findings suggest “that just having coverage alone without worrying about these other problems does not solve the situations that many people will face when they’re ill,” he said.
View the poll and more detailed results.
Read or listen to Robert Blendon interview
Learn more
Harvard Opinion Research Program
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