Insurance status among people with AIDS: relationships with sociodemographic characteristics and service use

This paper presents data on health insurance coverage among people with AIDS. The data came from interviews with 937 people with AIDS recruited from outpatient HIV clinics and community-based AIDS service organizations in nine communities across the United States. At the time of the interview, 30% had private insurance, 29% had no insurance, and 41% were covered by some form of public health insurance. Respondents who were nonwhite, injected-drug users, unemployed, and had incomes of less than $500 per month were more likely than their respective counterparts to have no insurance or to have publicly funded insurance. There were marked regional variations in insurance status, with the South having the highest proportion of of uninsured and the lowest proportion receiving Medicaid. Ninety-five percent of the uninsured and the publicly insured, compared to 47% of those with private insurance, used clinics as their source of medical care. People without insurance were less likely than those with private insurance to have been admitted overnight to a hospital, and their lengths of stay were shorter.