More than 25% of African Americans and nearly 50% of Hispanic Americans lacked health insurance on at least one day in 2006.
Researchers at the Commonwealth Fund, New York, reported those findings in a summary of results in recent telephone interviews of 3,535 U.S. adults ages 18 years and older.
In addition to lacking stable health coverage, the Hispanic American and African American survey participants were considerably less likely than other participants to have a "medical home," the researchers say.
A medical home is a place where health care is accessible, continuous, family-centered and coordinated.
African American and Hispanic American survey participants were less likely to be insured than white participants because they are less likely to get coverage through their employers, the researchers found.
Only 43% of the Hispanic American participants and 54% of the African participants said they got their health coverage from their employers, compared with 68% of the white participants and 71% of the Asian American participants.
