Access and use of health care services by mothers and children in the Texas-Mexico border region: preliminary findings from the 2006 Rio Grande Valley health survey

摘要

Background: Latino/a children have the highest rate of uninsurance among all ethnic/racial groups. There is some evidence that patterns of health care use between parents and their children are interrelated. Children are also more likely to have health insurance coverage if their parents are insured but public insurance programs do not cover all parents of participating children. The objective of this study was to assess whether there is a relation between patterns of health care utilization between Latina mothers and their children who reside in the South Texas- Mexico border region. Survey data on 495 Latina women with children from the 2006 Rio Grande Valley Health Survey were used to estimate bivariate probit models of the determinants of five health care access and utilization indicators. Patterns of health care utilization between Latina mothers and their children were positively related for having a usual place of care, visiting a doctor, visiting an emergency room, and having delayed health care needed. Both desirable and undesirable parental and child health care access/utilization patterns for Latinos/as are interrelated. Interventions that promote good health care utilization behavior for Latina mothers seem to spillover to their children. Public health insurance programs that focus on covering uninsured children but leave their parents uninsured may end up not taking full advantage of the positive spillover effects of health care access/utilization from mothers to their children.