The factors leading to such disparities in health status are multifaceted. Adult health status is often a manifestation of many years of disease risk and exposure and many disease conditions are interrelated, such as hypertension and diabetes with heart and renal disease. SES is attributed to influence nearly all aspects of health care, including access to care, behaviors predisposing individuals to health risks and attitudes surrounding health care. Individuals with poor access to care, often considered the greatest contributing factor to minority health status, are more likely to receive less preventive care, to delay care when symptoms develop, and to suffer more severely from and be hospitalized for conditions which can be effectively managed with preventive and outpatient treatment. One of the strongest predictors of access to care is access to health insurance, which eludes many minorities.
Numerous studies show that health insurance is highly tied to employment status.
However, after controlling for poverty and employment status, fewer minorities benefit from health insurance, even when considering different racial groups within similar professions and salary levels. One potential explanation for this, according to the Commonwealth Fund, is that as employees pay more of the costs of health care, overall wealth, not necessarily wages alone, plays a significant role in affording health care . Though insurance is widely believed to be the cornerstone to access, studies also show that having a regular care provider is as significant a factor in receiving health care. In this study, among patients with a regular physician, both uninsured and privately insured patients had equally good access. However, among patients with no regular physician, both uninsured and privately insured patients had significantly worse access.