Supplementary Table 3. Access to care among insured and uninsured African American, Latino, and white persons, 1997-2001

Note: This table indicates that insurance coverage affects one's access to care, especially the ability to get a regular health care provider and see a physician within the past year. Yet, uninsured Whites ironically report more unmet medical needs even though they gain greater access to care. Because of the lack of insurance, uninsured individuals go to the emergency room for medical care as indicated in this table, but for Hispanics, this tendency did not appear until the third round.

		Without Health Insurance				With Health Insurance
		1997	1999	2001		1997	1999	2001
Reported unmet medical needs
	African American	12.2a	14.5b	13.7a		5.0	4.6	5.2
	Latino	11.5a	9.4a	9.8a		5.5a	5.7a	6.1a
	White	15.0	17.0*	18.6#		3.9	4.4*	4.3
Has a regular health care provider
	African American	38.1a	40.8a	36.0a		70.4a	71.2a b	70.8a b
	Latino	34.9a	34.6a	31.1a		72.2a	62.2a *	66.8a #
	White	54.8	52.2	51.4#		77.7	76.4*	78.1*
Had a doctor visit in the last 12 months
	African American	53.2b	55.9b	47.1* a b		79.9b	82.4* b	80.3* b
	Latino	38.0a	42.5a	35.7* a		74.3a	76.2a	74.6a
	White	57.2	55.3	53.3#		80.5	81.5*	82.3* #
Last doctor visit was to a specialist
	African American	27.3	21.7	33.5* a		25.8b	23.6a	23.2a
	Latino	25.8	28.4	25.2		22.5a	24.2a	22.8a
	White	25.5	24.8	26.6		27.7	28.0	27.7
Proportion of visits with health care providers in the emergency room
	African American	12.4b	13.3b	12.7* b		9.9a b	10.1a b	8.8* a b
	Latino	6.6a	6.8a	9.6* # a		7.8a	6.8	7.0a
	White	11.5	11.7	12.0		6.1	6.2	5.9
Agrees that doctor puts medical needs above all other considerations
	African American	63.4	68.3b	67.0b		66.0b	69.6b	69.0#
	Latino	58.5	57.0a	58.0a		61.8a	62.5a	65.8a * #
	White	62.7	64.4	65.8		66.9	67.3	69.3* #
Source: Community Tracking Study Household Surveys, 1997-2001 Bold text indicates that estimates for uninsured persons were statistically, significantly different from estimates for insured persons. * Change from previous round is statistically significant at p<.05 # Change from 1996-97 to 2000-01 is statistically significant at p<.05 a African Americans or Latinos were different from whites in the same year b African Americans were different from Latinos in the same year.