Examining the Correlation Between Health Insurance Coverage and Women’s Healthcare Access
1 in 10 American adults lacks health insurance. This poses a significant public health issue especially for women, who have greater healthcare needs than men due to reproductive health concerns. However, women experience poverty at higher rates than men, making it difficult for many women to afford adequate health insurance and to, potentially, access key reproductive healthcare services . Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), I assess the association between health insurance coverage and women’s reproductive healthcare. Health insurance coverage was self-reported, and I use self-reports of access to contraceptives and pap smears as proxies for women’s utilization of reproductive healthcare. The analysis was conducted in STATA and included the use of hypothesis testing and multivariate logistic regression. When compared to women with health insurance coverage, those without coverage were found to be significantly less likely to use contraception and get regular pap smears. Affordable access to contraception is crucial in lowering unplanned births and pap smears are key in preventing cervical cancer. While numerous other women’s healthcare services are necessary, these two are indicators of adequate care since pap smears and a discussion on contraception occur at nearly all women’s health checkups. In order to improve women’s health outcomes, it is crucial that women have health insurance coverage. To accomplish this, health insurance in the United States must be made affordable and accessible to all people, especially women of reproductive age.
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Thank you for a very cohesive and well researched presentation. It was interesting to see that the number was the same for African American and caucasian women. It would be interesting to see the correlation between the types of careers women have and if they are Insured or not.
Thanks for the comment and suggestion! I have not looked into the impact that career type may have but I would definitely be interested in doing so in the future. I did find that education level and income, both of which are generally correlated with career type, did not have a significant effect on the correlation between health insurance coverage and women’s healthcare access.