Access and Use of Health Care Services by Mothers and Children in the Texas-Mexico Border Region: Preliminary Findings from the 2006 Rio Grande Valley

Background: Latino/a children have the highest rate of uninsurance among all ethnic/racial groups. There is some evidence that patterns of health care use between parents and their children are interrelated. Children are also more likely to have health insurance coverage if their parents are insured but public insurance programs do not cover all par-ents of participating children. The objective of this study was to assess whether there is a relation between patterns of health care utilization between Latina mothers and their children who reside in the South Texas-Mexico border region. Survey data on 495 Latina women with children from the 2006 Rio Grande Valley Health Survey were used to estimate bivariate probit models of the determinants of five health care acces