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CHIA Reports on Regional Health Care Disparities

CHIA Reports on Regional Health Care Disparities

DATE: April 28, 2022

CHIA released its latest report in a series on health care equity in Massachusetts, Health Insurance Coverage and Care in Massachusetts, 2015-2019: A Baseline Assessment of Gaps by Geographic Region.

This report provides a baseline assessment of gaps in health insurance coverage, access, utilization, and affordability in the period leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic across eight health service regions in Massachusetts. To advance the goal of health care equity in Massachusetts, it is important to examine how geographic differences impact residents’ health insurance coverage and care in the Commonwealth.

Key Findings:

  • Although Massachusetts has an overall high rate of health insurance coverage among its residents, regional rates in continuous coverage ranged from 89.4% in Southcoast to 95.3% in Western Massachusetts.
     
  • The rates of difficulties accessing care at a doctor’s office or clinic ranged from 25.1% in Metro South to 31.2% in Southcoast.

  • While the majority of Massachusetts residents reported having visited a doctor in the past 12 months, the regional rates varied from 87.7% in Metro Boston to 91.5% in the Northeast region.

  • The rates of unmet health care needs due to cost ranged from 21.0% in the Cape and Islands to 31.3% in the Southcoast region.


In December 2021, CHIA published the first report in this series, studying health care equity in Massachusetts based on three key characteristics: age, race/ethnicity, and family income groups. CHIA will continue to monitor developments in these domains for different subpopulations as insights from this report series may help inform efforts to better target interventions for a more equitable health care system in the Commonwealth.

The data for this report is sourced from the Massachusetts Health Insurance Survey (MHIS) from 2015 through 2019. For additional information on the MHIS and related health care affordability findings in the Commonwealth see CHIA's Massachusetts Health Insurance Survey web page.