Even with health insurance, lesbian, gay and bisexual adults are more likely to delay medical care

Lesbian, gay and bisexual adults in California have rates of health insurance coverage on par with or better than that of straight men and women in the state, but they are more likely to wait to see the doctor when they need medical care, according to a new  policy brief by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.Why the delay? According toSusan Babey, a co-author of the study, one reason cited in other research is that sexual minorities sometimes experience discrimination when they seek health care.“Sexual minorities who have had a bad experience with a medical provider because of their sexual orientation may try to avoid repeating it,” said Babey, who is also co-director of the Chronic Disease Program at the center.The UCLA study looks at differences in access to care, behaviors that negatively affect health (such as smoking or not exercising) and health problems that can result from those behaviors (such as developing hypertension or being overweight), based on people ’s sexual orientation. The findings show that 24 percent of bisexual men and 22 percent of straight men say they do not have a doctor they regularly see, compared with only 13 percent of gay men; but 20 percent of gay men and 21 percent of bisexual men delayed seeking health care in the past year, compared with 13 percent of straight men.Thirteen percent of straight women and 15 percent of lesbians reported that they do not have a doctor they regularly see, while a higher percentage of bisexual ...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news