Tie medically vulnerable: Their health risks, health status, and use of physician care

Employing the Andersen/Neuman model of health behavior, this research compa res the medically vulnerable (elderly, poor, and uninsured) with their less vulnerable counterparts with regard to(1) health and disability status, (2 ) likelihood of physician use, and (3) (among users) amount of physician us e. Data were from the Oklahoma Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey a nd the Area Resource File. Findings indicate that the medically vulnerable are more likely to be disabled and to experience poorer health than the non medically vulnerable. The uninsured are less likely to have seen a physicia n in the past year. Among those who have seen a physician in the past year, the uninsured and Medicare recipients without supplemental insurance exper ienced fewer physician visits. The results point to inequalities in the dis tribution of physician care that may be exacerbated by federal policies tha t are currently under consideration.