Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Access to Health Care Among Adults in the United States: A 20-Year National Health Interview Survey Analysis, 1999–2018

Importance Racial and ethnic disparities plague the US health care system despite efforts to eliminate them. To understand what has been achieved amid these efforts, a comprehensive study from the population perspective is needed. Objectives To determine trends in rates and racial/ethnic disparities of key access to care measures among adults in the US in the last two decades. Design Cross-sectional. Setting Data from the National Health Interview Survey, 1999-2018. Participants Individuals >18 years old. Exposure Race and ethnicity: non-Hispanic Black, non-Hispanic Asian, non-Hispanic White, Hispanic. Main outcome and measures Rates of lack of insurance coverage, lack of a usual source of care, and foregone/delayed medical care due to cost. We also estimated the gap between non-Hispanic White and the other subgroups for these outcomes. Results We included 596,355 adults, of which 69.7% identified as White, 11.8% as Black, 4.7% as Asian, and 13.8% as Hispanic. The proportion uninsured and the rates of lacking a usual source of care remained stable across all 4 race/ethnicity subgroups up to 2009, while rates of foregone/delayed medical care due to cost increased. Between 2010 and 2015, the percentage of uninsured diminished for all, with the steepest reduction among Hispanics (-2.1% per year). In the same period, rates of no usual source of care declined only among Hispanics (-1.2% per year) while rates of foregone/delayed medical care due to cost decreased for all. No substantial changes were observed from 2016-2018 in any outcome across subgroups. Compared with 1999, in 2018 the rates of foregone/delayed medical care due to cost were higher for all (+3.1% among Whites, +3.1% among Blacks, +0.5% among Asians, and +2.2% among Hispanics) without significant change in gaps; rates of no usual source of care were not significantly different among Whites or Blacks but were lower among Hispanics (-4.9%) and Asians (-6.4%). Conclusions and Relevance Insurance coverage increased for all, but millions of individuals remained uninsured or underinsured with increasing rates of unmet medical needs due to cost. Those identifying as non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic continue to experience more barriers to health care services compared with non-Hispanic White individuals. KEY POINTS Question: In the last 2 decades, what has been achieved in reducing barriers to access to care and race/ethnicity-associated disparities?Findings: Using National Health Interview Survey data from 1999-2018, we found that insurance coverage increased across all 4 major race/ethnicity groups. However, rates of unmet medical needs due to cost increased without reducing the respective racial/ethnic disparities, and little-to-no change occurred in rates of individuals who have no usual source of care.Meaning: Despite increased coverage, millions of Americans continued to experience barriers to access to care, which were disproportionately more prevalent among those identifying as Black or Hispanic.