Table 3.
Proportion of household respondents who experienced barriers in accessing healthcare services in the last year, Washington State, 2018 to 2019.
| RUCA 4-tier | RUCA 2-tier | RUCC 2-tier | Total | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Urban | Suburban | Large rural | Small rural | Significance | Urban | Rural | Significance | Metro | Non-metro | Significance | ||
| System-level barriers | ||||||||||||
| No appointment times that fit their schedule a | 19.7 | 11.3 | 13.4 | 11.7 | .08 | 18.7 | 12.8 | .11 | 18.5 | 13.6 | .21 | 18.0 |
| No PCP in their local area a | 1.6 | 0.8 | 3.7 | 9.9 | .02 | 1.5 | 6.0 | .04 | 1.6 | 6.6 | .02 | 2.1 |
| Lacked access to preventive care b | 2.3 | 0.3 | 7.4 | 7.8 | .02 | 2.1 | 7.6 | .02 | 2.2 | 7.7 | .02 | 2.8 |
| Accessed non-emergency care in the emergency room because they were unable to see a PCP b | 14.2 | 9.8 | 7.7 | 12.8 | .27 | 13.7 | 9.6 | .20 | 13.4 | 11.6 | .62 | 13.2 |
| PCP was not accepting new patients a | 7.1 | 3.2 | 12.5 | 7.7 | .15 | 6.7 | 10.7 | .19 | 6.7 | 11.3 | .15 | 7.2 |
| Needed medical care was too far away to access b | 2.4 | 2.4 | 1.9 | 10.5 | .05 | 2.4 | 5.0 | .17 | 2.4 | 5.3 | .15 | 2.7 |
| Individual-level barriers | ||||||||||||
| Inability to pay for services a | 12.8 | 5.6 | 6.9 | 5.7 | .04 | 12.0 | 6.4 | .06 | 11.8 | 6.5 | .08 | 11.3 |
| Delayed or canceled a surgical procedure due to lack of ability to pay b | 8.6 | 5.3 | 5.7 | 6.1 | .47 | 8.2 | 5.8 | .36 | 8.1 | 6.1 | .46 | 7.9 |
| Inability to take time off work a | 12.1 | 6.4 | 7.2 | 5.0 | .10 | 11.4 | 6.4 | .09 | 11.3 | 6.9 | .17 | 10.8 |
| Uninsured a | 5.7 | 2.9 | 5.2 | 3.8 | .59 | 5.3 | 4.7 | .79 | 5.3 | 4.6 | .77 | 5.3 |
| Primary health care provider not accepting patients with your insurance plan a | 6.5 | 3.2 | 9.6 | 5.7 | .35 | 6.1 | 8.2 | .45 | 6.0 | 9.6 | .22 | 6.3 |
Abbreviations: Metro, metropolitan; PCP, primary care provider; RUCA, rural-urban commuting area classification scheme based on ZIP codes; RUCC, rural-urban commuting code classification scheme based on county; Sig, significance.
Values represent survey-weighted proportions across all respondents. Significance indicates results from design-based Pearson chi square test comparing distributions across rurality classification schemes.
a
Reported reasons why respondents were unable to see a PCP in the last 12 months.
b
Reported health situation reported as a problem by respondents in the past year.