Researchers: Uninsured Rate Affects Care Quality For All

Insured residents in the poorly insured communities were less likely than insured residents in the well-insured communities to have a place to go when they were sick or needed health care advice, less likely to visit a doctor, and less likely to have had a physician exam within the last year, the economists found.

Insured residents in poorly insured communities also reported more problems getting referred to a specialist and were less likely to report that they were satisfied with their doctors, the economists report

Pauly and Pag?n also looked at physician survey data and found that doctors in poorly insured communities were unhappier about their careers and less confident about their ability to refer patients to good specialists.