Massachusetts residents want to see lower health care costs, but are skeptical of the government’s ability to lower health spending, a new poll from Harvard’s Kennedy School and the Harvard School of Public Health shows. The majority of respondents also supported some form of state action to control costs:
This is good news for state lawmakers, who are currently crafting legislation “that would make Massachusetts the first state — again — to radically revamp the way doctors, hospitals and other health providers are paid.” But as pollster Bob Blendon points out to WBUR, residents believe that costs are going up because providers are charging too much for services and don’t seem very interested in finding ways to avoid unnecessary care. “The experts says people need to use less services and less expensive services, but the public’s diagnosis is, I’m being charged too much,” he notes.
The poll also found that Massachusetts residents are ambivalent about the Affordable Care Act, predicting that it will have little impact on the state.
Previous in TP Health
By clicking and submitting a comment I acknowledge the ThinkProgress Privacy Policy and agree to the ThinkProgress Terms of Use. I understand that my comments are also being governed by Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, or Hotmail’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policies as applicable, which can be found here.