Survey: 96 percent of Mass. residents have health insurance

DATE: May 6, 2015

The Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA) reported Tuesday that 96.3 percent of respondents to its 2014 health insurance survey had coverage while fewer than one in 20 did not and 1.6 percent of respondents said they were uninsured for all of the past 12 months.

The state's insured rate compared to an 87.3 percent coverage rate for the United States, based on estimates from the National Health Interview Survey for January through June 2014, according to CHIA.

The report identified costs as a "significant barrier" to care in Massachusetts, where more than one in four respondents reported an unmet health care need due to costs over the past 12 months. One in five said they had difficulty paying family medical bills, with those conditions more common among adults in low-income families, the uninsured and "those with poor health with an activity limitation."