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2001 CHAP
Telephone Survey
Are there Differences in Perceptions
in Difficulty in Accessing Health Care Services?
Nine questions from the 1996 CHAP
Telephone survey were repeated in the 2001 survey. These
questions assessed perceived difficulties in obtaining health care
services related to cost and knowledge barriers. Respondents were
requested to rate level of ease or difficulty for themselves or
other household members to access certain types of health care
services on a 1 to 5 scale, where 1= no problem and 5 = major
problem (see Table 23 and
Table 24).
The majority of respondents
report no problem in accessing health care services in terms of
affording health insurance (69.7%), affording dental care (62.5%),
remaining eligible for health insurance (77.8%), previous medical
bills (86.0%) or obtaining prescribed medicines and treatment
(76.9%). However, the remaining respondents rate these areas as
somewhat a problem to a major problem. Approximately 13.0% of
respondents report that affording health insurance is a major
problem, while 16.9% rate affording dental care as a major
problem. Remaining eligible for health insurance is a major
problem for over 10% of respondents, and 7.2% report that previous
medical bills do prevent them from accessing health care services
when needed. Approximately 10% indicate they are prevented from
or obtaining prescribed medicines and treatment (see
Table 23 and
Figure 11) due to cost.
Barriers related to knowledge do
not appear to be as great a concern for Sedgwick County
residents. The vast majority of telephone respondents do not
perceive any problems in knowing where to go for health care
services (83.7%), counseling (79.7%), drug and alcohol treatment
(83.9%), or not being able to find pregnancy care (84.2%).
Conversely, the remaining respondents do perceive a problem in
knowing where to go for health care services (16.3%), in where to
seek counseling (20.3%) or drug and alcohol treatment (16.1%). It
is concerning that nearly 12% of respondents perceive it is a
major problem being able to find pregnancy care (see
Table 24 and
figure 12).
To assess
differences in the perceptions of difficulty in accessing health
care services related to cost and knowledge, responses from the
1996 to 2001 CHAP telephone survey were compared. Analyses using
the Mann Whitney U statistic demonstrate the mean ranks of
perceived difficulty are higher in 2001 as compared to 1996, and
differences are statistically significantly for not being able to
afford dental care, not being able to stay eligible for health
insurance, not knowing where to go to get health care and drug and
alcohol treatment, and not being able to find pregnancy care.
There are nonsignificant differences for not able afford health
insurance, not being able to get health care because of previous
medical bills, not able to afford prescribed medicines and other
treatments, and not knowing where to go for counseling (see
Table
25).
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