The relation between health insurance and health care disparities among adults with disabilities

N.A. Miller, A. Kirk, M.J. Kaiser and L. Glos

American Journal of Public Health, 2014, vol. 104, issue 3, e85-e93

Abstract: Objectives. We examined disparities among US adults with disabilities and the degree to which health insurance attenuates disparities by race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status (SES). Methods. We pooled data from the 2001-2007 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey on individuals with disabilities aged 18 to 64 years. We modeled measures of access and use as functions of predisposing, enabling, need, and contextual factors. We then included health insurance and examined the extent to which it reduced observed differences by race, ethnicity, and SES. Results. We found evidence of disparities in access and use among adults with disabilities. Adjusting for health insurance reduced these disparities most consistently for emergency department use. Uninsured individuals experienced substantially poorer access across most measures, including reporting a usual source of care and experiencing delays in or being unable to obtain care. Conclusions. Although health insurance is an important enabling resource among adults with disabilities, its effect on reducing differences by race, ethnicity, and SES on health care access and use was limited. Research exploring the effects of factors such as patient-provider interactions is warranted.

Keywords: adolescent; adult; article; Caucasian; confidence interval; disabled person; female; health care delivery; health care disparity; health care survey; health insurance; Hispanic; human; insurance; male; middle aged; Negro; socioeconomics; statistics; United States; utilization review; young adult, Adolescent; Adult; African Continental Ancestry Group; Confidence Intervals; Disabled Persons; European Continental Ancestry Group; Female; Health Care Surveys; Health Services Accessibility; Healthcare Disparities; Hispanic Americans; Humans; Insurance Coverage; Insurance, Health; Male; Middle Aged; Socioeconomic Factors; United States; Young Adult (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.2105/AJPH.2013.301478

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2013.301478_3

DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2013.301478

Access Statistics for this article

American Journal of Public Health is currently edited by Alfredo Morabia

More articles in American Journal of Public Health from American Public Health Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christopher F Baum ().