Inequities in Health Services Among Insured Americans: Do Working-Age Adults Have Less Access to Medical Care Than the Elderly?

Abstract

Hayward, et al., present the findings of the 1986 Access to Health Care Survey, a nationwide telephone survey of 7,633 adult respondents, most of them working-age. Among the questions asked were those concerning access to care, health insurance coverage, visits to physicians and health facilities, regular sources of care, and availability of medical resources to meet the needs of the chronically or seriously ill. Analysis of the survey results showed that access to health care is significantly worse for insured working-age adults than it is for elderly Americans, whose access in not considered optimal. The authors conclude that deficiencies in insurance coverage for working-age adults, related to persistent, large-scale inequities in access to care, constitute a serious, unaddressed problem. (KIE abstract)