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One-Fifth
of the U.S. Population has no Usual Doctor
Newswise, January 17, 2011 — Roughly 60
million people -- 1 in 5 Americans -- have
no usual source of medical care, such as a
family doctor or clinic, according to the
latest News and Numbers from the Agency for
Healthcare Research and Quality.
According to data from AHRQ, in 2007,
two-thirds of those who reported not having
a usual source of care said the main reason
was because they seldom or never got sick
and another 14 percent said their main
reason was the high cost of care.
When the
federal agency analyzed these and other main
reasons reported for not having a usual
source of care by people's background and
other factors, they found differences. For
example:
• Some 29
percent of people with no health insurance
cited high cost as their main reason for not
having a usual source of care, compared to
16 percent of people with public insurance
and 4 percent of those with private health
insurance.
• Hispanics
were more likely to say high cost was the
main reason why they didn’t have a usual
source of care (22 percent), compared for 12
percent for people of racial and ethnic
groups.
• At the same
time, 59 percent of the uninsured reported
not having a usual source of care because
they never got sick, compared to 67 percent
of people with private insurance and 53
percent of people with public insurance.
• Blacks were
most likely to report that they didn’t have
a usual source of care because they seldom
or never got sick (69 percent) as compared
to Hispanics, 62 percent; whites, 61
percent; and Asians, 58 percent.
• Asians were
most likely to report that not liking or
trusting doctors as their main reason for
not having usual a source of care (12
percent versus 4 percent for other groups as
a whole).
AHRQ, which is
part of the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services, improves the quality,
safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of
health care for all Americans. The data in
this AHRQ News and Numbers summary are taken
from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS),
a detailed source of information on the
health services used by Americans, the
frequency with which they are used, the cost
of those services, and how they are paid.
For more information, go to Main Reason for
Not Having a Usual Source of Care:
Differences by Race/Ethnicity, Income, and
Insurance Status, 2007
