New poll shows high satisfaction with health insurance in Mass., even as residents delay or skip care for cost reasons

 

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New poll shows high satisfaction with health insurance in Mass., even as residents delay or skip care for cost reasons   September 12, 2025 By Jennifer Smith

Massachusetts residents are largely content with their health care quality and coverage, according to a new CommonWealth Beacon poll. But digging beneath the high level of satisfaction reveals access and cost issues leading to delayed care for residents across the Commonwealth.

One third of residents say they have skipped or delayed seeking care due to cost in the last year, and 25 percent say cost led them to skip or delay seeking care for a dependent. Even getting that care can be a time gamble. A fifth of the state’s residents say they’ve had to wait more than two months for a primary care appointment, and 16 percent have had to wait that long for a specialist.

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The sweeping poll on heath care access for CommonWealth Beacon conducted by the MassINC Polling Group – which is partially owned by Commonwealth Beacon’s publisher MassINC – ran from August 11 to 18 and surveyed 1,000 Massachusetts residents with a credibility interval of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. (Topline | Crosstabs)

It paints a picture of Massachusetts residents mostly happy with their health care coverage, especially when compared with other states, even while large slices of the population report struggling with cost and access.

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“There can be two truths,” said Steve Walsh, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association. “It can be true that we're doing well, and it can also be true that we need to do better. And there is no doubt that health care costs are rising. It's making it harder on employers, including our health care institutions – which are our largest employer in the Commonwealth – so the cost of care impacts their ability to invest in workforce and cutting-edge technologies as well.”

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“I don't necessarily see [the poll results] as an outlier,” he added. “I see it as that we're getting incredibly good care here, but we need to be more focused on making sure it's affordable.”

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More Context Red lights on the way to health care (September 2025)  Insurance regulators OK steep increases, reject two as too large (July 2025)  5 ways Trump tax and spend bill would affect Massachusetts (July 2025)

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