Universal Health Insurance Coverage Lessens Disparities in Results
Submitted by Administrator on Fri, 2009-07-17 07:45
"[Our] understanding of insurance interventions is limited to what we can glean from natural experiments, such as evaluations of persons newly eligible for insurance coverage. For example, the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) was created in 1997 to cover children in low-income families whose income is too high for them to qualify for Medicaid. Coverage from SCHIP has been associated with improved access, use, and quality of care, as well as reduction or even elimination of preexisting racial and ethnic disparities (3)."
Much of the work on health disparities has focused on comparisons between those without coverage and those who are insured; the uninsured come out wanting.The uninsured persons have less access to services and suffer worse health outcomes than the insured.
- Breast Cancer: 30% to 50% higher mortality
- Accident victims: 37% higher mortality (1).
- Less ambulatory care and diagnostic testing; they often delay seeking care because of cost concerns (2)
- More difficulty obtaining prescription medications.
On the other hand, Medicare eligibility is "associated with increased use of health services and improved self-reported health status, as well as some reductions in disparities in these outcomes (4–6)."
"[Our] understanding of insurance interventions is limited to what we can glean from natural experiments, such as evaluations of persons newly eligible for insurance coverage. For example, the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) was created in 1997 to cover children in low-income families whose income is too high for them to qualify for Medicaid. Coverage from SCHIP has been associated with improved access, use, and quality of care, as well as reduction or even elimination of preexisting racial and ethnic disparities (3)."
Sehgal AR. "Universal Health Care as a Health Disparity Intervention." Ann Int Med. April 21, 2009;150(8):561-562
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