Faculty Publications

Medicare And Medicaid Services Online: Government Initiatives Narrowing Online Access Inequalities

Document Type

Book Chapter

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Public Affairs and Administration: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications

Volume

2

First Page

696

Last Page

710

Abstract

Government initiatives in the United States have been passed in an effort to increase citizen usage of e-government programs. One such service is the availability of online health insurance information. However, not all demographic groups have been equally able to access these services, primarily the poor and rural American. As more legislation is passed, including the advancement of broadband services to remote areas, infrastructure barriers are being removed, opening access to Medicare and Medicaid websites for these vulnerable groups. The purpose of this chapter is to analyze factors predicting the impact of recent government actions on citizen access to health insurance information online. This topic is explored using multivariate regression analysis and individual level data from the Internet and American Life Project. The findings suggest that healthcare needs and quality of Internet access may be playing a more important role in health insurance information services than other factors.

Department

Department of Political Science

Original Publication Date

5-31-2015

DOI of published version

10.4018/978-1-4666-8358-7.ch032

Link to Full Text

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