Health insurance rates changed little among non-elderly black, Latino, and white Americans between 2001 and 2003, but sources of coverage shifted among these groups, according to a 2004 Center for Studying Health System Change Community Tracking Study, a nationally representative survey that includes data on 47,000 people.
Low-income Latinos and whites experienced marked declines in employer-based coverage. From 2001 to 2003, employer-based coverage dropped from 28.3 percent to 22.9 percent for low-income Latinos, from 46.3 to 41.8 percent for whites, and remained fairly constant for low-income blacks. In addition, both access to, and take-up of, employer-based coverage declined significantly for low-income Latinos. Among low-income white Americans, access to employer-based coverage was reduced but take-up rates remained fairly constant.
The decline of employer-based coverage has had a significant impact on public insurance programs, which fill in the coverage gap among these groups. The proportion of nonelderly Latinos and whites with public coverage increased from 2001 and 2003, while the proportion of blacks with public coverage remained statistically unchanged.
While there was little change in access to care among these groups from 2001 to 2003, gaps in access persisted. The report finds that as long as access problems for racial and ethnic minorities persist it is unlikely that health disparities will diminish significantly.
