Health Care Use by Hispanic Adults: Financial vs. Non-Financial Determinants. Health Care Financing Review 17

The purpose of this article is to assess the relative effects of financial and cultural fac-tors, namely language spoken, on health care use by Hispanic adults. Using a national sample, we examine the determinants of hav-ing a usual source of care (USOC), use of physician visits, and likelihood of having blood pressure checked. Multivariate analysis reveals the following: Monolingual Spanish speakers were not significantly different from English speakers for the three dependent vari-ables; having private insurance or Medicaid was positively related to all three dependent variables. We conclude that financial fac-tors—primarily insurance—remain as the paramount barriers to care. BACKGROUND Lower rates of health care use by Hispanics compared with non-Hispanic white persons—in terms of hospitaliza-tions, physician visits, prescribed medi-cines, and specific preventive services— have been found in numerous studie