Concerns about Cost of Healthcare Supersede COVID-19 Concerns in MA

The cost of healthcare is more concerning than the risks of the coronavirus pandemic for Massachusetts residents, according to a poll commissioned by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (Blue Cross).

Beacon Research interviewed 1,000 adults through telephone and online surveys from June 14 through June 23, 2022.

The respondents were primarily located in the suburbs of Massachusetts (34 percent) and western and southern Massachusetts (24 and 20 percent, respectively). The majority of the participants were White (81 percent) between the ages of 30 and 44 (25 percent) with an income of $30,000 to $100,000 (54 percent).

The findings showed that healthcare costs have supplanted the coronavirus pandemic as consumers’ top concern in Massachusetts.

“As we emerge from the COVID pandemic, we conducted this poll to better understand what Massachusetts residents believe are the key priorities in health care,” Jay McQuaide, senior vice president and chief communications officer at Blue Cross, said the press release. “There is a clear call to action in these survey results for those of us in health care to do more and to act with greater urgency to address the unsustainable rise in health care costs.”

Massachusetts residents ranked the cost of care as three times more concerning than quality of care, access to care, or the coronavirus pandemic. Healthcare costs were the third-highest concern for respondents. Nearly seven out of ten participants were concerned about healthcare costs.

Regardless of income—whether the respondents’ households made less than $30,000 or more than $100,000—respondents considered cost of care as the biggest healthcare issue, compared to access to care or quality of care. Sixty-two percent of respondents said that cost of care was the most crucial healthcare issue.

Despite these concerns, respondents were fairly satisfied with their healthcare quality and their health plans. A little over half of the respondents were completely or very satisfied with their healthcare quality (51 percent) and 56 percent of the respondents were very or completely satisfied with their health plan satisfaction.

Healthcare costs are particularly concerning in the context of the overall costs of living in Massachusetts.

Gas and grocery costs are rising across the state. The cost of groceries was a major problem for 59 percent of families and a minor problem for 29 percent of respondents. Gasoline costs were a major problem for 68 percent of families and a minor problem for 18 percent of them.

While healthcare costs were not as much of a financial barrier as gas and grocery spending, they still posed a problem for many respondents.

The cost of copays and healthcare bills was a major or minor problem for over six out of ten families. Prescription drug costs and premiums were not as concerning as rent or mortgage payments, but nevertheless over half of all families saw prescription costs and monthly health insurance premium costs as a problem (57 percent each).

Most Massachusetts residents expressed concerns about inflation and the cost of living (83 percent). Many also reported concerns about the cost of housing (71 percent) as well as jobs and the economy (53 percent). Less than half shared concerns about public education (47 percent) and racism (41 percent).

But the concern that settled far down at the bottom of the list was the coronavirus pandemic. Slightly under a third of Massachusetts respondents expressed concern about the coronavirus. One in five were very concerned and only 12 percent were extremely concerned about the pandemic.

Altogether, these cost concerns have real consequences for consumers’ health. Over four in ten consumers reported delaying care due to cost, with 12 percent putting off care due to cost on a regular basis. Additionally, 26 percent of respondents delayed filling a prescription because to the cost, either regularly or occasionally.

“After two years of intense focus on COVID, cost is again the primary health care issue facing Massachusetts residents,” Chris Anderson, founder and president of Beacon Research, added in the press release. “Consumers strongly believe that this is an urgent issue that health plans, the government and hospitals should be working to address.”

In 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic dominated consumers’ concerns, Blue Cross employees were involved in the contact tracing efforts and they also worked at the state’s field hospital, Boston Hope.

But now that the pandemic has become more manageable, the focus has shifted. Separate studies have indicated that the costs of health insurance are overwhelming and are rivaled largely by other living expenses like childcare and rent.

In an effort to curb costs, policymakers have passed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. The law seeks to control healthcare spending on the individual health insurance marketplace but some experts have concerns about the downstream effects of the law’s Medicare drug price negotiation policy.