Managed care in three states: experiences of low-income African Americans and Hispanics

This article examines the experiences of low-income, nonelderly Hispanics, African Americans, and whites in managed care (MC), and compares them to their racial/ethnic counterparts enrolled in fee-for-service (FFS) health plans. Survey findings from Florida, Tennessee, and Texas show that MC and FFS enrollees do not differ substantially on most access and satisfaction measures, with a few notable exceptions. When compared with their FFS counterparts, African-American MC enrollees are twice as likely to report problems in obtaining needed care, and Hispanic MC enrollees are nearly twice as likely to rate the extent to which their providers care about them as "fair" or "poor." In contrast, whites in MC are less likely to be without a regular provider than their FFS counterparts, but report greater dissatisfaction with the extent to which providers care about them.