Age, race, ethnicity, and insurance coverage add up to trouble
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality survey data indicate that while a majority of parents say they have had good experiences in obtaining health care for their children, there are significant variations reported by age, race/ethnicity, and type of insurance coverage.
The agency says that parents of publicly insured (such as Medicaid and State Childrens Health Insurance Program) and uninsured children (20.4% and 15.8%) were more likely to say they had experienced a problem receiving necessary care during a doctor’s office or clinic visit than were parents of privately insured children (7.9%). They also were more likely to say that the health provider never or only sometimes explained things carefully.
The findings include:
- Parents of black children were more likely than parents of white or Hispanic children to report that health care providers always showed respect for what they had to say.
- Black and white children were more likely than Hispanic children to have their parents report that providers always explained things in a way they could understand.
- Hispanic children were less likely than white or black children always to get appointments for routine care as soon as their parents wanted.
- Uninsured children were less likely than those with private coverage to have their parents report that health care providers always spent enough time with them.
- Uninsured children ages 6-17 were much less likely than children that age with public or private coverage to receive care for an illness or injury as soon as their parents wanted.
Data were collected in 2000 and early 2001 through a new questionnaire added to the agency’s Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. Parents of a nationally representative sample of 6,500 children under age 18 were asked about the timeliness in which their children received needed and routine medical care and their experiences during their children’s care.
[More information is available at www.meps.ahrq.gov/papers/st3/stat03.htm.]
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