Universal health insurance could mitigate disparities in health outcomes between African American and white patients, according to a new study in Annals of Surgery.
Researchers looked at claims information for more than 502,000 patients from the California State Inpatient Database, and more than 129,000 patients from the Department of Defense's TRICARE system.
TRICARE is available to beneficiaries regardless of social class, occupational status or capacity to work and can represent a universal healthcare initiative.
Patients in the study cohort received one of 12 surgical procedures, including total knee and hip replacements and appendectomies.
Here are three insights:
1. African Americans with private insurance were approximately 20 percent more likely to experience complications, compared to privately insured white patients.
2. African Americans were also around 30 percent more likely to be readmitted and have a longer hospital stay than their white counterparts.
3. Researchers found these disparities to be absent among African Americans treated within DoD hospitals, which offer TRICARE.