Health Care Equity in Massachusetts

While Massachusetts has made significant strides to mitigate barriers to access and affordability through legislative reforms and the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), substantial disparities persist among specific subpopulations in health insurance coverage, access, utilization, and affordability. Using data from multiple sources, CHIA seeks to prioritize the collection and analysis of reliable and meaningful health care information on subpopulations to inform policymakers, health care providers, payers, and other industry partners.

CHIA uses several data sources to explore equity issues facing the Commonwealth:

• Massachusetts Health Insurance Survey
  
  
• Massachusetts Acute Hospital Case Mix Database (Case Mix)
  
  
• Massachusetts All-Payer Claims Database (MA APCD)
  
  
• Health plan expenditure and quality measure reports

All Health Equity Publications

• Black and Hispanic Residents in Massachusetts Report Higher Rates of Unmet Health-Related Social Needs in Their Families
  (July 2025)

• Hospital Utilization in Massachusetts: An Assessment by Race and Ethnicity
  (August 2023)
   - Databook
   - Technical Appendix
  

• Massachusetts Foreign-born Residents, Particularly Non-citizens, Are Less Likely to Have Continuous Health Insurance Coverage
  (April 2023)
  

• Health Insurance Coverage and Care in Massachusetts, 2015-2019: A Baseline Assessment of Gaps by Region
  (April 2022)

• Black and Hispanic Residents Report Higher Likelihood of Potential Reliance on the Emergency Department for Health Care than White Residents in the Commonwealth
  (November 2022)

• Health Insurance Coverage and Care in Massachusetts, 2015-2019: A Baseline Assessment of Gaps by Age, Race and Ethnicity, and Income
  (December 2021)