Vitullo Margaret Weigers, Taylor Amy K
Gallaudet University, USA.
J Health Care Poor Underserved. 2002 Nov;13(4):504-25.
Lack of health insurance is a serious problem in the United States. Using data from the 1996 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, this paper examines how insurance varies between black, white, and Latino adults. Because Latino subgroups are not homogeneous, the paper also compares the factors associated with health insurance status for Mexican and Puerto Rican adults. Results indicate that access to private health insurance for Latino adults was more closely associated with workplace characteristics than employment itself. Time lived in the United States was a major factor associated with being uninsured for Mexican adults, while language barriers were a major factor limiting Puerto Rican individuals' access to private health insurance. The paper suggests two approaches for decreasing uninsurance among Latino adults: (1) strengthening the link between employment and private health insurance and (2) addressing disparities in access to public coverage for racial and ethnic groups, including recent immigrants.
缺乏医疗保险在美国是一个严重的问题。本文利用1996年医疗支出小组调查的数据，研究了黑种人、白种人和拉丁裔成年人在保险方面的差异。由于拉丁裔亚群体并非同质化，本文还比较了墨西哥和波多黎各成年人与医疗保险状况相关的因素。结果表明，拉丁裔成年人获得私人医疗保险与工作场所特征的关联比与就业本身的关联更为紧密。在美国居住的时间是墨西哥成年人未参保的一个主要相关因素，而语言障碍是限制波多黎各个人获得私人医疗保险的一个主要因素。本文提出了两种减少拉丁裔成年人未参保情况的方法：（1）加强就业与私人医疗保险之间的联系；（2）解决包括新移民在内的种族和族裔群体在获得公共保险方面的差异。
