Health Access California Identifies High Health Care Costs in Santa Barbara

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) – The office of Health Access California has named Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital as one of California's high-cost hospitals.

Health advocates held a virtual town hall Tuesday afternoon that focused on health care affordability, and highlighted the high cost of care in Santa Barbara County.

They say the cost of health care services have been rising faster than inflation, putting additional stress on already struggling families.

Representatives from Cottage Health shared this statement with your News Channel:

Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital is a locally founded, not-for-profit hospital with generations of care centered on community. Cottage invests in our community through financial assistance programs, through our centers for population health, innovation and research, through community partnerships and through education and training programs to help recruit and retain healthcare professionals to care for the people in our region.

We are concerned about care affordability and access, and every employee at Cottage is engaged in ideas to reduce healthcare cost for our community. We’ve identified group purchasing efficiencies and avenues to reduce supply costs, at the same time growing our services to increase access to care for all patients.

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