The Impact of COVID-19 on Healthcare Coverage and Access in Racial and Ethnic Minority Populations in the United States

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Geospat Health
• Personal Author:
  Freelander, Lauren ; Rickless, David S. ; Anderson, Corey ; Curriero, Frank ; Rockhill, Sarah ; Mirsajedin, Amir ; Colón, Caleb J. ; Lusane, Jasmine ; Vigo-Valentín, Alexander ; Wong, David
• Description:
  This study described spatiotemporal changes in health insurance coverage, healthcare access, and reasons for non-insurance among racial/ethnic minority populations in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic using four national survey datasets. Getis-Ord Gi* statistic and scan statistics were used to analyze geospatial clusters of health insurance coverage by race/ethnicity. Logistic regression was used to estimate odds of reporting inability to access healthcare across two pandemic time periods by race/ethnicity. Racial/ethnic differences in insurance were observed from 2010 through 2019, with the lowest rates being among Hispanic/Latino, African American, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander populations. Pre-pandemic insurance coverage rates were geographically clustered. The percentage of adults citing change in employment status as the reason for non-insurance increased by about 7% after the start of the pandemic, with a small decrease observed among African American adults. Almost half of adults reported reduced healthcare access in June 2020, with 38.7% attributing reduced access to the pandemic; however, by May 2021, the percent of respondents reporting reduced access for any reason and due to the pandemic fell to 26.9% and 12.7%, respectively. In general, racial/ethnic disparities in health insurance coverage and healthcare access worsened during the pandemic. Although coverage and access improved over time, pre-COVID disparities persisted with African American and Hispanic/Latino populations being the most affected by insurance loss and reduced healthcare access. Cost, unemployment, and eligibility drove non-insurance before and during the pandemic.
• Subjects:
  COVID-19 Ethnicity Health Services Accessibility Insurance, Health Minority Groups Pandemics Racial Groups
• Keywords:
  Healthcare Access Health Disparities Health Insurance Spatial Analysis
• Source:
  Geospat Health. 18(2)
• Pubmed ID:
  38150046
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC10790404
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  CC999999/ImCDC/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  United States
• CIO:
  Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry ; Office of Minority Health
• Topic:
  Healthy Living
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  27 pdf pages
• Volume:
  18
• Issue:
  2
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:ed87a3a58a429c0bc794d68512569d9097f66dd9e0d2ed8453a7b173e26b451bc32810fd37f7bbc93314e2597381bce97b28ec556ccc6c307adccd127aa651e9
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/142644/cdc_142644_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 3.29 MB ]