Access to medical care for black Americans with an episode of illness.

Blacks have been directly or indirectly affected by changes in policies such as cutbacks in the Medicaid program or decreases in the funding of graduate medical education. Yet there is considerable disagreement over whether blacks have achieved equity of access to medical care. Descriptive and multivariate regression analyses were conducted to examine the use of ambulatory and inpatient medical care by 1150 whites and blacks under the age of 65 who experienced an episode of illness and lived around sites serviced by the Community Hospital Program, which was developed to increase primary care in underserved communities. After controlling for demographic factors, health status, and aspects of the usual source of care, multivariate analyses revealed that race was not a determinant of differences found in the use of ambulatory and inpatient medical care or the likelihood that an individual was cured of the condition causing him or her the most worry. Differences in the use of care for blacks were believed to have occurred because blacks were disproportionately found in groups that used less medical care, ie, low-income groups, the uninsured, and those without a usual source of care.