More Than
Four in 10 Adults in New Orleans
Report Worse Health Care Access Post-Katrina
In Orleans Parish, One in
Four Adults Reported Being Uninsured And 70 Percent of Uninsured Adults were
African Americans
WASHINGTON,
July 31 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As the second
anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall approaches, new analysis by the
Kaiser Family Foundation of its household survey of people in the New Orleans
area shows that more than four in 10 (43 percent) adults reported at least one
health care access problem in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Underscoring
the racial disparities documented generally in the Kaiser household survey, 70
percent of the one in four adults without health insurance in Orleans Parish
were African Americans. In Orleans Parish, the survey found that 33 percent of
African American adults were uninsured versus 12 percent of white adults.
The newly
released, Health Challenges for the People of New Orleans, is a follow-up to
the May 2007 report, Giving Voice to the People of New Orleans: The Kaiser
Post-Katrina Baseline Survey. The new 65-page report examines the health care
status of the adult population of Greater New Orleans based on a Fall 2006 household interview survey of residents of the
parishes of Orleans, Jefferson,
Plaquemines and St. Bernard and details their health coverage and access to
health care services after the disaster.
Some of the
most frequently reported health access problems included deterioration in the
ability to have health needs met now compared to before Katrina (22 percent),
having a harder time getting to their place of medical care now (18 percent),
and having a different medical provider after Katrina (16 percent).
"Many of
the health access problems highlighted in our survey are common in other
low-income urban areas across the country. What makes New Orleans unique is the lack of a health
care system able to respond post-Katrina. The findings help explain why
residents ranked getting medical facilities up and running as such a top
priority only behind repairing levees and controlling crime," said Kaiser
Family Foundation President and CEO Drew E. Altman, Ph.D.
Health
Coverage Contrast
The survey
found that among all New Orleans
area adults, one in five reported being uninsured, substantially higher than
the national average of 15 percent for this group. But by comparison, the
survey shows that in the Greater New Orleans area, less than one in 10 (9
percent) of households with children reported a child lacked health insurance.
And most notably, in an area characterized by racial disparities documented
throughout the survey, the percentage without health insurance was comparable
for both African American and white households with children.
"Louisiana
is among the state leaders in covering low-income children, but ranks at the
very bottom of coverage of their low-income adult population, with Medicaid
eligibility levels at 20 percent of the Federal Poverty Level or $4,130 per
year for an adult in a working family of four," said Foundation Executive
Vice President Diane Rowland, Sc.D. "Although
Louisiana is poised to potentially narrow the racial disparity gap in coverage
of children even further with a new state law expanding their State Children's
Health Insurance Program to children up to 300 percent of the Federal Poverty
Level, addressing coverage for the one in five uninsured adults remains a real
challenge," she added.
The uninsured
rates among a variety of vulnerable subgroups are also of note. Fifty-six
percent of previous users of the Charity
Hospital System-an integral part of
the New Orleans
health care delivery system prior to Hurricane Katrina, predominantly served
the uninsured-reported being without coverage.
Looking Ahead
As
policymakers at the federal, state, and local level grapple with the challenges
presented by Hurricane Katrina, the Kaiser Family Foundation will continue to
give voice to the people of New
Orleans and supply policymakers with a source of
information about who is returning to the area and how they are faring. Future
Kaiser household surveys planned for the next two years will monitor progress
and changes.
The full
survey analysis, Health Challenges for the People of New Orleans, along with a
link to the broader May 2007 analysis is available online at http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/7659.cfm.
Additionally, Diane Rowland will testify on August 1 to the U.S. House of
Representatives, Committee on Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Oversight
and Investigations about the key health findings from the household survey. The
Subcommittee is holding the hearing, "Post-Katrina Health Care in the New
Orleans Region: Progress and Continuing Concerns Part II."
METHODOLOGY
The Kaiser
Post-Katrina Baseline Survey of the New Orleans Area was designed and analyzed
by researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation. This in-person survey was
conducted door-to-door from September 12 to November 13, 2006. Interviews were
completed in English and Spanish among 1,504 randomly selected adults ages 18
and older residing in Orleans, Jefferson,
Plaquemines, and St. Bernard parishes. These four neighboring parishes make up
Region 1 as defined by Louisiana's
Department of Health and Hospitals, an administrative region used for recovery
planning. The sample design was a stratified area probability sample, with 456
sampling points distributed proportionate to expected
population size in each of the four parishes, and in each of fourteen Census
tract defined neighborhoods in Orleans Parish. An oversample
was drawn in Orleans
to allow for more detailed analysis of this area; final results have been
weighted so that each parish reflects its estimated share of the area's
population. The margin of sampling error for the full sample is plus or minus 4
percentage points; for results based on Orleans Parish or Jefferson Parish it
is plus or minus 5 percentage points. For results based on other subsets of
respondents the margin of sampling error may be larger. ICR/International
Communications Research collaborated with Kaiser researchers
on sample design and weighting, and supervised the fieldwork.
Contact:
Rakesh Singh, rsingh@kff.org, (202) 654-1313
Craig Palosky, cpalosky@kff.org, (202) 347-5270
Website:
http://www.kff.org/
