Health care disparities in the United States have long been noted, with particular attention to the gaps separating racial and economic groups. While some research has looked at how insurance—and lack of insurance—contribute to this imbalance, few, if any, studies have quantified the impact of universal coverage on differences in health outcomes between these groups.
Now, by analyzing measures of blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar collected between 1999 and 2006 from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a team of researchers in the HMS Department of Health Care Policy has compared the health outcomes of individuals by race, ethnicity and education. The researchers studied whether overall discrepancies between these demographic groups were narrowed among adults age 65 or older covered by the federal health insurance program Medicare.
Looking at data for more than 6,000 individuals between the ages of 40 and 85, the researchers probed important indicators of disease control for hypertension, diabetes and coronary heart disease. They found that while health indicators improved for all groups between 1999 and 2006, the socio-demographic gaps remained unchanged or, in some cases, widened. However, among individuals age 65 or older who were eligible for Medicare, the gaps narrowed substantially.
These findings were reported in the April 21 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine by researchers including first author J. Michael McWilliams, HMS assistant professor of health care policy and an associate physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and senior author John Ayanian, HMS professor of health care policy and of medicine at BWH and HSPH professor of health policy and management.
