Association of Public and Private Insurance with Having a Usual Source of Care in Adolescence: Race/Ethnicity and Immigrant Differences
摘要
Adolescents with a usual source of care (USC) are less likely to have unmet health needs. Insurance coverage may enable having a USC by reducing some barriers to care, but unique challenges of public insurance (e.g., limited number of providers) and private insurance (limited no-cost services) suggest that the impact of insurance may not be universal. Groups such as immigrants and racial and ethnic minorities face additional barriers to receiving health care and may be differentially impacted by type of insurance coverage. This study examined the relationship between insurance type and having no USC in adolescence overall and by race and ethnicity and whether parents are immigrants.
MethodsWe analyzed nationally representative cross-sectional data from the 2018–2021 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household Component using multivariable logistic regression adjusting for other explanatory variables. Analyses were conducted for the full sample, by race and ethnicity, and by parents’ immigrant designation (US-born, mixed immigrant type, and foreign-born).
ResultsAlthough adolescents with public insurance were less likely to be without USC than adolescents with private insurance, in the subsample analyses, this finding was only significant for Non-Hispanic Black adolescents and those with US-born parents.
ConclusionsAdditional work is needed to ensure all insurance plans address the unique barriers to care experienced by adolescents of different races, ethnicities, and immigrant designations.