Medeiros Jillian A, Sanchez Gabriel R, Valdez R Burciaga
Department of Political Science at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA.
J Health Care Poor Underserved. 2012 Nov;23(4):1383-98. doi: 10.1353/hpu.2012.0183.
Utilizing a survey of Latino registered voters conducted in Spring 2009, we focus our attention on the impact of the rapidly rising costs of health care on the health-seeking behavior of Latino registered voters, and the impact of high medical costs on their economic status. We find that a third of Latinos used up all or most of their savings and a quarter of Latinos skipped a recommended test or treatment due to high medical costs, rates that are particularly high given that our sample is of Latino registered voters. Furthermore having health insurance is not statistically related to preventing economic hardship due to medical costs for Latinos. Our results suggest that the expansion of insurance coverage alone will not insulate the Latino community from being faced with economic difficulties unless the reform policy directly addresses individual costs of care.
利用2009年春季对拉丁裔登记选民进行的一项调查，我们将注意力集中在医疗保健成本迅速上升对拉丁裔登记选民就医行为的影响，以及高昂医疗成本对他们经济状况的影响上。我们发现，三分之一的拉丁裔用尽了全部或大部分积蓄，四分之一的拉丁裔因医疗成本高昂而跳过了推荐的检查或治疗，鉴于我们的样本是拉丁裔登记选民，这些比例特别高。此外，对于拉丁裔来说，拥有医疗保险与防止因医疗成本导致的经济困难在统计上并无关联。我们的结果表明，除非改革政策直接解决个人医疗费用问题，否则仅扩大保险覆盖范围并不能使拉丁裔社区免受经济困难的影响。
