Health Insurance Status Affects Access to Care for Minorities More than for Whites, Study Says

The disparity in access to health care between "working-age" uninsured minorities and uninsured whites in the United States "generally [is] almost double" that between minorities with health insurance and whites with health insurance, according to a study released June 19 by the Center for Studying Health System Change. HSC researchers surveyed about 60,000 individuals in 33,000 families nationwide in 2001 to determine whether they had a regular health care provider and had visited a doctor in the past year. The study found:

• 31.1% of uninsured Latinos and 36% of uninsured African Americans reported that they had a regular health care provider, compared with 51.4% of uninsured whites;
• 66.8% of Latinos with health insurance and 70.8% of African Americans with health insurance reported that they had a regular health care provider, compared with 78.1% of whites;
• 35.7% of uninsured Latinos and 47.1% of uninsured African Americans reported that they had visited a doctor in the past year, compared with 53.3% of uninsured whites; and
• 74.6% of Latinos with health insurance and about 80% of African Americans with health insurance reported that they had visited a doctor in the past year, compared with 82.3% of whites.