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2007 DHFS report shows large racial disparity in health coverage
Hispanics in Wisconsin found to have highest rate among uninsured
By John Grant
“*Because many Hispanics don’t have access to or seek health insurance, they don’t receive preventive care,*” Figueroa said. “*This ends up being more costly out of pocket for people who don’t have access to state and federal institutions.*”
When Abel Santiago left the U.S. to visit family back in Mexico five years ago, he didn’t expect to come back and find himself without health insurance.
Santiago had been covered through his employer at the Japanese restaurant where he works, but when he came back six months later his boss told him that business was slow and that he could no longer afford it.
“Hopefully next year I’ll have health insurance,” Santiago said. “I have too many bills right now, and I’m more concerned that my kid is covered.”
Over the last five years, the number of people in Wisconsin without health insurance has pretty much stayed the same at around 5 percent, with the vast majority of residents receiving health coverage through their employers.
This could lead one to ask “Who doesn't have health coverage in Wisconsin and why, when it seems so obtainable by the rest of the state?”
The Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services released a Nov. 2007 report that broke down the number of uninsured into categories of race and ethnicity, where a disparity was clearly visible between certain groups.
According to the DHFS report there were 297,000 people in Wisconsin without health insurance for all of 2006. The reports indicate that there is a racial disparity in the uninsured, which consisted largely of the following groups by race and ethnicity:
•5 percent of the White population
•7 percent of the Black population
•4 percent of the American Indian population
•23 percent of the Hispanic population
Hispanics make up only four percent of the state’s households, yet account for a strikingly disproportionate number of those without insurance, some 46,000 individuals comprising 15 percent of the uninsured in Wisconsin, according to the DHFS report.
Enrique Figueroa, director of the Roberto Hernandez center at University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, said that this disparity is a significant issue.
“Because many Hispanics don’t have access to or seek health insurance they don’t receive preventive care,” Figueroa said. “This ends up being more costly out of pocket for people who don’t have access to state and federal institutions.”
According to Figueroa, there are three main reasons why so many Hispanics don’t have health coverage; one is that many Hispanics are employed in low wage jobs that don’t provide them with enough money in order to pay for insurance.
Another reason is that the types of jobs a lot of Hispanics have don’t offer insurance benefits to their employees, like the service industry and construction.
The third reason is that much of the uninsured Hispanic population is undocumented and won’t seek out insurance because they know they are ineligible, Figueroa said.
Stephanie Ward, who is in charge of health statistics for the DHFS reports, said that those interviewed for the report weren’t asked if they were documented or not. This means that the undocumented portion of the uninsured population would most likely have been included in the DHFS report.
Another key finding of the DHFS report was the numbers of uninsured based on poverty status, with around 15 percent of “poor” and “near poor” residents without health coverage all year. Poor status was determined based on a household's yearly income and the number of people within the household, according to the DHFS report.
State programs like Badger Care, which offer health coverage for low income families in Wisconsin, don’t typically cover undocumented immigrants, which is why many turn to free clinics around Milwaukee for help.
But apparently not everyone who’s uninsured can receive help from these clinics though, as Santiago said he was turned away because he makes too much money.
Two months ago Santiago said that he started experiencing painful migraines that lasted for over a week. After being turned down at the clinics, Santiago had no choice but to go to a hospital to see what was causing his headaches.
After waiting for half an hour, Santiago said that a doctor saw him for a few minutes and gave him a prescription for sleeping pills which he said didn’t even help.
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