Summary
Addressing racial/ethnic group disparities in health insurance benefits through legislative mandates requires attention to the different proportions of racial/ethnic groups among insurance markets. Authors applied racial/ethnic data from the 2009 California Health Interview Survey to the 2012 California Health Benefits Review Program Cost and Coverage Model to determine the racial/ethnic composition of 10 health insurance market segments and found disproportional representation of racial/ethnic groups by segment, thus affecting the health insurance impacts of benefit mandates.
California's Medicaid program is disproportionately Latino (60% in Medi-Cal, compared to 39% for the entire population), and the individual insurance market is disproportionately non-Latino white. Gender differences also exist. Mandates could unintentionally increase insurance coverage racial/ethnic disparities. Policymakers should consider the distribution of existing racial/ethnic disparities as criteria for legislative action on benefit mandates across health insurance markets.
