Annals of family medicine
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Annals of family medicine · Sep 2017
Observational StudyUninsured Primary Care Visit Disparities Under the Affordable Care Act.
Health insurance coverage affects a patient's ability to access optimal care, the percentage of insured patients on a clinic's panel has an impact on the clinic's ability to provide needed health care services, and there are racial and ethnic disparities in coverage in the United States. Thus, we aimed to assess changes in insurance coverage at community health center (CHC) visits after the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) Medicaid expansion by race and ethnicity. ⋯ The lower rates of uninsured visits for all racial and ethnic groups after ACA implementation suggest progress in expanding coverage to CHC patients; this progress, however, was not uniform when comparing expansion with nonexpansion states and among all racial and ethnic minority subgroups. These findings suggest the need for continued and more equitable insurance expansion efforts to eliminate health insurance disparities.