A MedicalXpress report says that nearly 40 percent of Americans lacking health coverage live in the suburbs, and that close to one out of every seven suburban residents has no coverage.
The report highlights a forthcoming study to appear in Health Affairs that finds a growing population of poor people in suburban areas, despite the suburbs' reputation for affluence, and also finds that the suburban poor encounter substantial barriers to accessing health care that are similar to those faced by the urban and rural poor.
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This is the first national study to examine the differences in health care coverage and access between people living in the suburbs and people in urban and rural areas.
In the wake of the 2008 recession, poverty has been increasing in the suburbs, thanks to job and wealth losses, cities pricing out lower-income families, lower prices in the suburbs and an influx of immigrants to the suburbs instead of cities.
Among the study's findings is the news that suburbs house 44 percent of the overall population, but 38 percent of the uninsured population. Among suburbanites, the uninsurance rate is 15 percent. In addition, health care can be scarce in the suburbs, with 19 percent having no usual source of care. Even more, 34 percent, have no routine annual checkup.
In addition, poor adults — from cities, rural areas and suburbs — had eight times greater odds of being uninsured and 1.7 times hgreater odds of having no recent checkup compared to higher-income adults.
While the number of uninsured suburbanites fell under the Affordable Care Act, it didn't do so by as much as in urban and rural areas. There are specific handicaps to finding care in the suburbs, as well, the study finds: the relative lack of community health centers and free clinics; safety net hospitals that are far from home with limited public transportation options; providers that may be reluctant to treat uninsured patients; and limited availability of services such as mental health and substance abuse treatment.
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