Access to Health Care Part 2: Working-age Adults

This report examines access to health care for working-age adults, 18 to 64 years of age, in the United States for 1993. Access indicators include having a regular source of care, place of care, main reason for no usual source of care, and unmet health care needs. Sociodemographic characteristics examined include sex, age, race/ethnicity, place of residence, employment status, income, health status, and health insurance status.

In 1993, 76 percent of working-age adults had a regular source of medical care; 16 percent had no regular source of care, and 8 percent were unknown. Overall, older adults (45-64 years of age) were more likely to have a regular source of care than younger adults (18-44 years of age), 82 versus 74 percent; and women were more likely to have a regular source of care than men, 81 versus 72 percent.

Among adults with a regular source of care, 6 percent visited a private doctor's office for their health care needs. Nine percent of adults used a clinic as their regular source of care. Two percent, an estimated 2 million working-age adults, visited a hospital emergency room for their regular medical care.

There were almost 25 million working-age adults in the United States who had no regular source of medical care in 1993. Respondents reported a variety of reasons for lacking a usual source of medical care. About one-half or 12.2 million persons reported no need for a doctor. Males were more likely than females to say they had no need for regular medical care (55 versus 39 percent).

Overall, 30 million persons or almost 20 percent of the working-age population reported an inability to obtain needed health care. About 40 percent of uninsured persons in comparison with 16 percent of insured persons reported an unmet need. Unmet need was large among those with public insurance (32 percent) than among those with private insurance (14 percent).

Keywords: Access to care, health insurance, regular source of care, reason for no regular source of care, unmet need, uninsured

This report can be purchased from the Government Printing Office (GPO). GPO stock number 017-022-01380-1, price: $4.75

This page last reviewed January 11, 2007