Summary
The study aimed to determine if type of insurance coverage and location of usual source of care used were associated with perceptions of racial or ethnic discrimination in health care. Additionally, this study examined if perceived racial or ethnic discrimination influenced delaying or forgoing prescriptions or medical care using data from the 2015-16 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) for 39,171 adults.
Logistic regression models estimated odds of perceiving racial or ethnic discrimination from insurance type and location of usual source of care. Logistic regression models estimated odds of delaying or forgoing medical care or prescriptions. Key health care utilization variables were: Current insurance coverage, location of usual source of care, delaying or forgoing medical care, and delaying or forgoing prescriptions. Authors examined if these effects differed by race. Ever experiencing racial or ethnic discrimination in the health care setting functioned as a dependent and independent variable in analyses.
When insurance type and location of care were included in the same model, only the former was associated with perceived discrimination. Specifically, those with Medicaid had 66 percent higher odds of perceiving discrimination, relative to those with employer-sponsored coverage. Race did not moderate the impact of discrimination. Perceived discrimination was associated with higher odds of delaying or forgoing both prescriptions and medical care.
