Reports of Insurance-Based Discrimination in Health Care and Its Association With Access to Care.

DISCRIMINATION in insurance; DISCRIMINATION in medical care; HEALTH insurance laws; HEALTH services accessibility; MEDICAL care costs; CUSTOMER services; MEDICAL care costs -- Social aspects; CHI-squared test; STATISTICAL correlation; DEMOGRAPHY; DENTAL care; DISCRIMINATION (Sociology); ETHNIC groups; INCOME; HEALTH insurance; LEGISLATION; MEDICAL care; MENTAL health; POPULATION; PUBLIC health; RACE; REPORT writing; SURVEYS; DATA analysis; ACQUISITION of data

UNITED States; MINNESOTA

Objectives. We examined reports of insurance-based discrimination and its association with insurance type and access to care in the early years of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Methods. We used data from the 2013 Minnesota Health Access Survey to identify 4123 Minnesota adults aged 18 to 64 years who reported about their experiences of insurance-based discrimination. We modeled the association between discrimination and insurance type and predicted odds of having reduced access to care among those reporting discrimination, controlling for sociodemographic factors. Data were weighted to represent the state's population. Results. Reports of insurance-based discrimination were higher among uninsured (25%) and publicly insured (21%) adults than among privately insured adults (3%), which held in the regression analysis. Those reporting discrimination had higher odds of lacking a usual source of care, lacking confidence in getting care, forgoing care because of cost, and experiencing provider-level barriers than those who did not. Conclusions. Further research and policy interventions are needed to address insurance-based discrimination in health care settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of American Journal of Public Health is the property of American Public Health Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)