Identifying the insured and uninsured in rural America: an empirical discriminant analysis

This present study sought to investigate whether there were factors that could discriminate insured from uninsured rural Americans.

Data for four groups were used: 34 uninsured, 102 government-insured (GP), 324 private- or employer-insured (PEP), and 96 both government- and private- or employer-insured (GPEP). A discriminant analysis was conducted on the four groups, using group membership as the dependent variable; age, education, income, attitude to insurance, emergency room visit, chronic disease prevalence were the independent variables.

The analysis yielded three discriminant functions, however the only significant function was the one that discriminated the PEP-insured individuals from the other groups. About 48% of the cases were classified correctly with the significant discriminant function.

The findings of this study can serve as a baseline for future research seeking to eradicate barriers to getting health insurance among the uninsured in rural America.