Who Is at Greatest Risk for Receiving Poor-Quality Health Care?

Previous research has found differences in health care access and quality among sociodemographic groups. In this study of patients who had made at least one visit to a health care provider during the previous two years, quality-of-care scores were suboptimal overall but were not lower for women than for men or for black or Hispanic patients than for whites. Poorer patients had a slightly lower quality of care: recommended care was received by 53 percent of those with annual family incomes below $15,000 and 57 percent of those with incomes above $50,000. In this study of patients who had made at least one visit to a health care provider during the previous two years, quality-of-care scores were suboptimal overall but were not lower for women than for men or for black or Hispanic patients than for whites. Poorer patients had a slightly lower quality of care. The quality of American medical care falls short of expectations. 1 , 2 We have previously reported that U.S. adults receive about half of recommended health care services. 3 How much variation is there among population subgroups in the likelihood of receiving needed care? Previous studies have found that patients who are women, older, members of racial and ethnic minorities, poorer, less educated, or uninsured are less likely to receive needed care, largely as a result of lack of access to care (determined by whether an encounter with a health care provider occurs), rather than a deficiency in the quality of care (determined . . .