Health Care Market Stabilizes, but Rising Costs and State Budget Woes Loom in Boston

Abstract:

In May 2003, a team of researchers visited Boston to study that community's health system, how it is changing and the effects of those changes on consumers. The Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC), as part of the Community Tracking Study, interviewed more than 90 leaders in the health care market. Boston is one of 12 communities tracked by HSC every two years through site visits and every three years through surveys. Individual community reports are published for each round of site visits. The first three site visits to Boston, in 1997, 1999 and 2001, provided baseline and initial trend information against which changes are tracked. The Boston market includes the city of Boston and Bristol, Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, Plymouth and Suffolk counties.