Publications by Shruti Rajan for Health Policy Center

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Until recently, most surveys of insurance coverage have classified people as uninsured if they have not been assigned some coverage in response to one of a series of questions about specific types of insurance. This “residual” approach to measuring uninsurance rates has not required respondents to either verify their insurance status or confirm that they are uninsured. Using the 1997 National Survey of America’s Families, this paper examines the impact of a question confirming whether or not individuals for whom no insurance coverage is reported are, in fact, uninsured. The results of our analysis suggest that a confirmation question as part of a telephone-based survey works to lower estimates of the uninsured. Staring in March 2000 and following the findings of this study, the Current Population Survey introduced a confirmation question in its health insurance sequence. (Inquiry 2000 Fall; 37(3):317-327)

Health disparities among racial and ethnic groups have a long history and continue to exist in the United States. The U.S. government has established as a goal for the year 2010 the elimination of racial/ethnic health differences in six areas. This article examines disparities in one of those areas: access to high-quality health care. Several measures of access and use of health care services are studied both nationally and in 13 diverse states. We find that both the magnitude of disparity and the reasons behind it depend significantly on the state, the ethnic group, and the type of measure being studied. Such information can be valuable for state and national policy makers in targeting resources and in designing effective strategies for the elimination of racial and ethnic disparities. (Medical Care Research and Review 2000; 57(Supplement 1): 55-84).

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