 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Howard P. Greenwald, PhD, School of Policy, Planning, and Development, University of Southern California, 650 Childs Way, Los Angeles, CA 00089-0626, 213-740-0397, greenwa@usc.edu, Suzanne O'Keefe, PhD, Department of Economics, California State University, Sacramento, 6000 J Street, Sacramento, CA 95819-5768, and Mark DiCamillo, MBA, The Field Institute, 222 Sutter Street, San Francisco, CA 94108-4411.
To better understand insurance coverage among California’s working Latinos and consequences of specific insurance situations, researchers analyzed data from a telephone survey to 1,000 randomly-selected, employed adults. Among survey respondents, 30.7 percent lacked insurance from any source; 54.4 percent had insurance from employers; 7.9 percent were insured under Medi-Cal (California’s Medicaid program); 6.9 percent had insurance from self-purchased plans or other sources. Compared with individuals insured through employers, those on Medi-Cal or with no insurance were more likely to receive care in a location other than a doctor’s office, receive care in a public or community clinic, lack a primary care provider, and report that they could not obtain health care in the past year due to cost. Among those without insurance, only 3.5 percent reported using emergency rooms, and less than 1 percent reported using non-physician healers, as their usual source of care. Dissatisfaction with care was infrequent: less than 5 percent of respondents who reported a usual source of care indicated dissatisfaction with that source. Among those reporting a usual source of care, no statistically significant differences in percentages dissatisfied were found among the employer-insured, Medi-Cal beneficiaries, and the uninsured. Uninsured respondents stated that they had needed to see a doctor in the past year less often than those with insurance. Although these findings underscore the importance of public and community clinics for working Latinos in California, public policy appears to be moving in the direction of decreased support for these facilities.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Access and Services, Insurance
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.