Health Insurance Literacy and Health Disparities in the United States: A Literature Review

• Main Author: Emily Vardell
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Hawai'i Library & Information Science Program 2019-08-01
• Series: The International Journal of Information, Diversity, & Inclusion
• Subjects: health disparities; health information; health insurance; health insurance literacy; health justice
• Online Access: https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/ijidi/article/view/33012

This paper presents a literature review of health insurance literacy with a focus on specialized populations in the U.S. and how limited health literacy skills exacerbate health disparities. This discussion places this issue within the context of contemporary U.S. health care reform and makes connections between health insurance coverage and health disparities. This overview of the research on health insurance literacy covers research across the health insurance spectrum, from awareness of health insurance options to assessments of health literacy skills in specific populations as well as from readability of health insurance informational materials to the availability of multilingual services. In exploring the demographic variables associated with lower health insurance literacy skills, this paper reviews the body of current research in this area to make connections between populations more likely to have unequal access to health care and how having limited skills in navigating the U.S. health care system may compound these disparities. In addition, this paper proposes an Integrated Framework for Health Insurance Literacy as a method for further studying the connections between demographic factors, health coverage, health status, and health insurance literacy skills.