title: Winners and losers in health insurance: access and type of coverage for women in same-sex and opposite-sex partnerships.
abstract: Using data from the American Community Survey, 2009 (N=580,754), we compared rates of health insurance coverage and types of coverage used between women in same-sex and opposite-sex partnerships. This large, national dataset also allowed us to investigate regional variation in insurance coverage for women in same-sex partnerships by comparing "gay-tolerant" states versus other states. Multivariate analyses revealed that women in same-sex partnerships consistently had lower rates of health insurance coverage than married women in opposite-sex partnerships, but always more than unmarried women in opposite-sex partnerships. We also found that state-level variation in gay tolerance did not contribute to the access or type of coverage used by women in same-sex partnerships.
authors.affiliation: a Sociology Department, Texas A&M University, College Station , Texas , USA.
authors.forename: Heili
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Pals
authors.forename: Warren
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Waren
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D020010:Heterosexuality / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018452:Homosexuality, Female / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D019458:Insurance Coverage / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016015:Logistic Models; D008393:Marriage / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D012747:Sexual Partners / Q000145:classification; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States
keywords: health insurance; homosexual tolerance; lesbian; same-sex partner; unmarried partners