Provided by David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D.
Surgeon General of the United States of America
Chapter 2
Overview of Cultural Diversity and Mental Health Services
Cost
Cost is yet another factor discouraging utilization of mental health services
(Chapter 6). Minority persons are less likely than whites to have private health
insurance, but this factor alone may have little bearing on access. Public
sources of insurance and publicly supported treatment programs fill some of the
gap. Even among working class and middle-class African Americans who have
private health insurance, there is underrepresentation of African Americans in
outpatient treatment (Snowden, 1998). Yet studies focusing only on poor women,
most of whom were members of minority groups, have found cost and lack of
insurance to be barriers to treatment (Miranda & Green, 1999). The discrepancies
in findings suggest that much research remains to be performed on the relative
importance of cost, cultural, and organizational barriers, and poverty and
income limitations across the spectrum of racial and ethnic and minority groups.
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