Researchers at University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing Target Health Insurance (The Great American Recession and forgone healthcare: Do widened…

Researchers at University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing Target Health Insurance (The Great American Recession and forgone healthcare: Do widened disparities between African-Americans and Whites remain?)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Weekly News -- Research findings on Health Insurance are discussed in a new report. According to news reporting originating from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by VerticalNews correspondents, research stated, "During the Great Recession in America, African-Americans opted to forgo healthcare more than other racial/ethnic groups. It is not understood whether disparities in forgone care returned to pre-recession levels."

Financial supporters for this research include National Institute of Nursing Research, Jonas Center for Nursing and Veterans Healthcare.

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, "Understanding healthcare utilization patterns is important for informing subsequent efforts to decrease healthcare disparities. Therefore, we examined changes in racial disparities in forgone care before, during, and after the Great Recession. Data were pooled from the 2006-2013 National Health Interview Survey. Forgone medical, mental, and prescription care due to affordability were assessed among African-Americans and Whites. Time periods were classified as: pre-recession (May 2006-November 2007), early recession (December 2007-November 2008), late recession (December 2008-May 2010) and post-recession (June 2010-December 2013). Multivariable logistic regressions of race, interacted with time periods, were used to identify disparities in forgone care controlling for other demographics, health insurance coverage, and having a usual place for medical care across time periods. Adjusted Wald tests were performed to identify significant changes in disparities across time periods. The sample consisted of 110,746 adults. African-Americans were more likely to forgo medical care during the post-recession compared to Whites (OR=1.16, CI=1.06, 1.26); changes in foregone medical care disparities were significant in that they increased in the post-recession period compared to the pre-recession (OR=1.17, CI=1.08, 1.28 and OR=0.89, CI=0.77, 1.04, respectively, adjusted Wald Test p-value <0.01). No changes in disparities were seen in prescription and mental forgone care. A persistent increase in forgone medical care disparities existed among African-Americans compared to Whites post-Great Recession and may be a result of outstanding issues related to healthcare access, cost, and quality. While health insurance is an important component of access to care, it alone should not be expected to remove these disparities due to other financial constraints."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "Additional strategies are necessary to close remaining gaps in care widened by the Great Recession."

For more information on this research see: The Great American Recession and forgone healthcare: Do widened disparities between African-Americans and Whites remain? Plos One, 2017;12(12):e0189676. (Public Library of Science - www.plos.org; Plos One - www.plosone.org)

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting J.L. Travers, NewCourtland Center for Transitions and Health, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, Philadelphia, PA, United States. Additional authors for this research include C.C. Cohen, A.W. Dick and P.W Stone.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189676. 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.

Keywords for this news article include: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, Health Insurance, Health and Medicine, North and Central America.

Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world. Copyright 2018, NewsRx LLC