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Insurance status is known to affect healthcare seeking for preventive and chronic care, but its effect on seeking care for serious emergency conditions is less known. Investigators examined this issue in a multicenter, prospective study involving 3721 patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) at 24 urban U.S. hospitals.
Patients were interviewed within 24 to 72 hours of admission about insurance status, financial concerns about paying for healthcare, and psychosocial and health status variables. About 39% of patients were either uninsured or insured with considerable financial concerns, and the rest were insured without financial concerns. Delays beyond 6 hours in seeking AMI care were reported by nearly half (49%) of uninsured patient…