Roughly 60 million people—one in five Americans—have no usual source of medical care, such as a family doctor or clinic, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Data from 2007 shows that two thirds of those who reported not having a usual source of care said the main reason was that they seldom or never got sick and another 14% said their main reason was the high cost of care.
The AHRQ report also finds that 29% of people with no health insurance cited high cost as their main reason for not having a usual source of care, compared to 16% of people with public insurance, and 4% of those with private health insurance. Hispanics were more likely to say high cost was the main reason why they did not have a usual source of care—22%, compared to 12% for people of other racial and ethnic groups.
In addition, the report found that 59% of the uninsured reported not having a usual source of care because they never got sick, compared to 67% of people with private insurance and 53% of people with public insurance. Blacks were most likely to report that they did not have a usual source of care because they seldom or never got sick (69%) as compared to Hispanics, 62%; whites, 61%; and Asians, 58%.
Asians were most likely to report not liking or trusting doctors as their main reason for not having a usual source of care—12% versus 4% for other groups as a whole.
Source: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
