Reports Outline Health Education Study Results from University of New Hampshire (Perceptions of Health Insurance Among Self-employed Korean Immigrants From South Korea In the United States): Education – Health Education

Health Policy and Law Daily

2024 OCT 24 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health Policy and Law Daily -- New research on Education - Health Education is the subject of a report. According to news reporting originating from Durham, New Hampshire, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Korean Americans in the United States are more likely than other Asian ethnic groups to lack health insurance despite their high education and economic prosperity. According to the model of health service selection, immigrants’ perceptions of the health care system and health care behaviors in their host country are affected by sociocultural referents including premigration health care experience in the country of origin.”

Financial support for this research came from Hamovitch Center for Science in the Human Services at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work.

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from the University of New Hampshire, “This study explored Korean immigrants’ perceptions of health insurance and their intentions to purchase and maintain health insurance in the United States. We conducted in-depth interviews with 24 self-employed Korean immigrants who migrated from South Korea and were living in the Greater Los Angeles area in 2015. Participants generally had negative perceptions of U.S. health insurance in terms of cost, benefits, simplicity, and accessibility. Coupled with their positive experiences with the single-payer, universal health insurance in South Korea, respondents evaluated U.S. health insurance as not worth purchasing, and indicated they would not maintain health insurance once the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act was abolished. On the contrary, respondents who immigrated prior to the establishment of the Korean universal health insurance in South Korea were relatively satisfied with U.S. health insurance and had maintained health insurance for substantial periods of time. Korean immigrants’ premigration health care experiences appeared to influence their decisions to purchase health insurance in the United States and their intention to maintain health insurance.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “The study findings highlight the necessity of tailored health education that takes into account sociocultural determinants of health coverage among immigrants.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Perceptions of Health Insurance Among Self-employed Korean Immigrants From South Korea In the United States. Health Education & Behavior, 2024;51(1):167-175. Health Education & Behavior can be contacted at: Sage Publications Inc, 2455 Teller Rd, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320, USA. (Sage Publications - http://www.sagepub.com/; Health Education & Behavior - heb.sagepub.com)

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Chung Hyeon Jeong, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, United States. Additional authors for this research include Will Lusenhop, Hyunsung Oh and Lawrence A. Palinkas.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1177/10901981221139169. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)