New Report Shows Average Mass. Resident Paying $7,550 on Health Care

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Written by Michael Bednarsky (Patch Staff)

Health care costs every man, woman and child in Massachusetts on average $7,550 per year, according to a landmark report. The report, which was released Tuesday by the state’s Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA), has also found that state residents receiving taxpayer-funded care account for 60 percent of the $50.5 billion total cost.

The organization was created under state law in 2012 to monitor spending increases among doctors, hospitals and insurers. There was a system-wide decrease overall in expenditures for 2013. Spending for public coverage accounted for nearly 60 percent of the total health care expenditures during the same year.

“People should be asking themselves if they’re really getting $7,500 worth of quality health care every year, because if they’re not, that’s $7,500 that they’re not taking home in their paycheck, that they’re not spending for college tuition, and that they’re not putting toward public education and a number of other priorities,” said Joshua Archambault, director of health care policy at the Pioneer Institute. “I think everyone wants quality health care — but how many people would say that $6,000 worth of health care would be enough if they knew the rest could be freed up for other family expenses? I bet a lot of state residents would say they’d prefer that.”

The state-mandated cost growth benchmark for health care was set at 3.6 percent in 2013. The benchmark was successfully met, with total health care expenditures growing only by 2.3 percent. However, the report points out expenditures rose faster than inflation, which was 1.5 percent. Overall health care spending grew 2.3 percent, according to the report from the Center for Health Information and Analysis.

Read the Boston Herald article here.

Find links to the CHIA report and data books here.