Open AccessHealth Insurance Literacy and Health Disparities in the United States: A Literature Review
Author(s) -
Emily Vardell
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
the international journal of information, diversity, and inclusion
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2574-3430
DOI - 10.33137/ijidi.v3i4.33012
Subject(s) - health literacy , health equity , health care , health policy , business , readability , context (archaeology) , literacy , health education , public relations , health promotion , medicine , actuarial science , environmental health , political science , economic growth , geography , economics , computer science , archaeology , programming language
This paper presents a literature review of health insurance literacy with a focus on specialized populations in the U.S. and how limited health literacy skills exacerbate health disparities. This discussion places this issue within the context of contemporary U.S. health care reform and makes connections between health insurance coverage and health disparities. This overview of the research on health insurance literacy covers research across the health insurance spectrum, from awareness of health insurance options to assessments of health literacy skills in specific populations as well as from readability of health insurance informational materials to the availability of multilingual services. In exploring the demographic variables associated with lower health insurance literacy skills, this paper reviews the body of current research in this area to make connections between populations more likely to have unequal access to health care and how having limited skills in navigating the U.S. health care system may compound these disparities. In addition, this paper proposes an Integrated Framework for Health Insurance Literacy as a method for further studying the connections between demographic factors, health coverage, health status, and health insurance literacy skills.