Mass. Survey: Most Support States Health Reform Law

Posted By Courier Times health reporter Jo Ciavaglia

On September 28, 2009 @ 10:21 am

A new poll by the Harvard School of Public Health and The Boston Globe finds more than half of Massachusetts residents who are aware of the states 2006 health reform law support it.

Massachusetts is the only state where nearly all of the population has health insurance coverage.

The poll conducted earlier this month found 59 percent of more than 500 adults surveyed supported the law; a little more than 1 in 4 opposed it and 13 percent arent sure how they feel.

The survey results represent a slight decline in public support from last year - when 69 percent said they supported the law. 

Support for the law varied by party affiliation, with 76 percent of Democrats, 56 percent of Independents, and just 35 percent of Republicans saying they support the legislation.

Massachusetts is currently facing the impact of a severe recession, state budgetary and fiscal problems, and continued rising health care costs. Despite this difficult environment, the poll found that 79 percent of residents want the law to continue, with more than half favoring continuing it with some changes; almost one quarter of those polled wanted it to continue as is.

 Only 11 percent of state residents favored repealing the health reform law; last year 12 percent supported repealing it.

The poll also asked respondents about the impact of the health reform law on their own health care in terms of quality, costs, and their ability to pay medical bills. On all these measures, about half reported that the law did not have much of an impact on them.

Of those who reported an impact, more thought it helped their quality of care (23 percent versus 14 percent who felt it hurt their quality) and helped their ability to pay their medical bills (24 percent versus 14 percent who felt it hurt their quality). On the cost of their own care, the results were not statistically different (24% saying hurt versus 19% helped).

Interviews were conducted with 506 randomly selected Massachusetts state residents, age 18 and older, via telephone by Social Science Research Solutions of Media, Pennsylvania. The interviewing period was September 14-16, 2009. The data were weighted to accurately reflect the demographics of the states adult population as described by the U.S. Census.