Many Hispanics Shut Out of U.S. Health Care System

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 13 (HealthDay News) -- An estimated 25 percent of Hispanics in the United States don't have a regular health care provider to treat their medical needs.

And these people tend to be the newest documented and undocumented immigrants and those without health insurance, a new survey found.

The survey, conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is important because it paints a picture of health care among Hispanics in the United States, according to William Vega, a family medicine professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Hispanics make up the largest minority group in the United States, comprising 45 million people and growing, Vega noted during a teleconference Tuesday.

"The gradient of time in the country and being born in the country or outside the country has a lot to do with how people perceive and experience the health care system, and especially the deficits of that system," Vega said.

One key finding of the survey was how many Hispanics lack a "medical home" -- a regular provider to supply medical care.

"If you compare these numbers to those from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Latinos are more than twice as likely to lack a usual health care provider," Gretchen Livingston, a senior researcher at the Pew Hispanic Center, said during the teleconference.

And that could pose problems because rates of diabetes are high among Hispanics. But nearly one-third of the survey respondents said they know little about the disease or how to prevent or manage it.

Hispanic men are less likely to have a usual health care provider than women, 37 percent to 17 percent, respectively, Livingston noted. And younger Hispanics are less likely to have a usual provider than older ones. Education levels also play a role, with one-third of high school dropouts lacking a usual provider, compared with 19 percent who have some college, she said.

"We found a number of characteristics of health care access that are particular to Latinos," Livingston added. "Especially important is assimilation."

For instance, foreign-born Hispanics are less likely to have a usual health care provider, as are those who only speak Spanish, Livingston said. Among those who have been in the United States for five years or less, 49 percent don't have a regular care provider, compared with 21 percent of Hispanics who have been in the United States for 15 years or more, according to the survey.

Access to health insurance plays a big role, too, the survey found.