Inequities in Forgone Medical Care and Health Insurance in a Key Geopolitical Area Along the US-Mexico Border.

Background: Residents of the US-Mexico border face cost-related barriers in accessing necessary medical care. Given the potential for individualized or broader tailoring of solutions to reflect community needs, we sought to identify risk factors for being uninsured and forgoing necessary medical care due to cost among a largely Hispanic adult population residing along the US-Mexico border.

Methods: Surveys among adults in a major US-Mexico border area were used to investigate cost-related forgone medical care and lack of insurance. Binary Logit models were employed to model multiple binary outcomes informed by our theoretical frameworks.

Results: Lower education, Hispanic ethnicity, being younger, lacking underlying illness and/or having obesity, forgoing medical care due to cost, and having lower income were associated with a higher likelihood of being uninsured; while being female, being younger, having underlying illness and/or having obesity (potential increased risk of severe illness due to COVID-19), lacking insurance, and having a lower income were risk factors for forgone medical care due to cost.

Conclusions: This study adds novel insight into existing health inequities facing those residing along the US-Mexico border region, thereby holding timely public health implications.