MCR&R 57 (Supplemental: Racial and Ethnic Inequities, 2000)Weinick et al. / Race and Health C re Use Racial and Ethnic Differences in Access to and Use of Health Care Services, 1977 to 1996

This article focuses on racial and ethnic disparities in health care, describing both abso-lute differences and relative changes in access to care and the use of health services among whites, blacks, and Hispanics over the past two decades. Using data from a series of three nationally representative medical expenditure surveys, the authors present descriptive statistics on disparities in access and use between minorities and whites over time. They also use multivariate analyses to isolate the extent to which health insurance and income explain those disparities. The authors find that disparities increased between 1977 and 1996, particularly for Hispanic Americans. Results also show that approximately one half to three quarters of the disparities observed in 1996 would remain even if racial and ethnic disparities in income and health insurance coverage were eliminated. In 1984, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services established a Task Force on Black and Minority Health to investigate the health problems of various racial and ethnic groups in the United States. In its report the following year, the task force noted considerable disparities between white Americans and other racial and ethnic groups with regard to An earlier version of this article was presented at the conference “Race, Ethnicity & Medical Care