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Published in: Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health 4/2006

01-10-2006 | Original Paper

Public Health Insurance Enrollment among Immigrants and Nonimmigrants: Findings from the 2001 California Health Interview Survey

Authors: Jinsook Kim, Hosung Shin

Published in: Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health | Issue 4/2006

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Abstract

We examine whether adult immigrants in California had the same likelihood of having public health insurance as nonimmigrants with comparable characteristics, using 44,434 non-elderly adult samples of the 2001 California Health Interview Survey public use data. Multinomial logistic regression was used to assess the likelihood of public health insurance relative to private (employment-based or privately purchased) health insurance by generation status, controlling for individual characteristics. The outcome of interest was public health insurance among three health insurance categories: private health insurance, public health insurance, and uninsured. Both first and second generation immigrants were more likely to have public health insurance than were nonimmigrants. However, the difference vanished, when demography, socioeconomic status, health status, employment sector, and English facility were controlled for. The combined effect of lower returns to education and lower employment-based insurance offer rates seems to be the underlying cause of higher prevalence of public health insurance among ethnic minorities.
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Metadata
Title
Public Health Insurance Enrollment among Immigrants and Nonimmigrants: Findings from the 2001 California Health Interview Survey
Authors
Jinsook Kim
Hosung Shin
Publication date
01-10-2006
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health / Issue 4/2006
Print ISSN: 1557-1912
Electronic ISSN: 1557-1920
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-006-9000-3

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