The share of agricultural workers that reported that it was difficult to access needed U.S. health care decreased by 15 percentage points between 1999-2000 and 2007-2008, from 50 percent to 35 percent, with almost two-thirds reporting in 2007-2008 that it was "easy" to get health care. Over the 15-year period from 1999-2000 to 2013-2014, agricultural workers consistently reported that cost was a main difficulty that they faced when they needed to access U.S. health care (cited by nearly 90 percent of workers in every time period since 2007-2008). Language used to be much more of a barrier to accessing U.S. health care than it has been more recently, cited by 35 percent of agricultural workers in 1999-2000 and only seven percent in 2013-2014.
General barriers for accessing health care
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Attention A T users. Data is presented in three formats, a bar chart, a textual data table, and a line chart. The data is best reviewed though the data table when using A T.
Data Table — General barriers for accessing health care
| Category | 99-00 | 01-02 | 03-04 | 05-06 | 07-08 | 09-10 | 11-12 | 13-14 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | |
| Too expensive | 2,894 | 78% | 2,590 | 79% | 2,099 | 78% | 1,165 | 82% | 1,225 | 87% | 1,123 | 88% | 938 | 89% | 1,161 | 90% |
| They don't speak my language | 1,245 | 35% | 542 | 17% | 357 | 13% | 348 | 28% | 214 | 16% | 127 | 8% | 104 | 10% | 99 | 7% |
| They don't treat me with respect/I don't feel welcomed | 363 | 10% | 91 | 4% | 79 | 2% | 32 | 1%a | 33 | 2%a | 26 | 3%a | 16 | 2% | 12 | <1% |
| No transportation, too far away | 266 | 8% | 130 | 5% | 81 | 3% | 15 | 1% | 60 | 5% | 57 | 3% | 28 | 3% | 41 | 3% |
| Don't know where services are available | 212 | 6% | 172 | 8% | 191 | 8% | 120 | 10% | 102 | 8% | 53 | 4% | 18 | 2%a | 27 | 2% |
| They don't understand my problems | 182 | 4% | 119 | 3% | 78 | 3% | 41 | 3% | 28 | 2% | 22 | b | 10 | 1% | 16 | 1%a |
| They don't provide the services I need | 97 | 3% | 42 | 1% | 21 | 1%a | 23 | b | 42 | 6% | 22 | 2%a | 20 | 3%a | 18 | 1% |
| Health center not open when needed | 133 | 2% | 17 | <1%a | 8 | b | 10 | 1%a | 19 | 2%a | 26 | 1% | 17 | 1%a | 17 | 1%a |
| I'm undocumented (that's why they don't treat me well)2 | - | - | 258 | 8% | 201 | 9% | 77 | 5% | 59 | 5% | 32 | 2% | 31 | 3%a | 57 | 4% |
| I will lose my job | 51 | 1% | 24 | <1% | 8 | <1%a | 6 | <1%a | 22 | 1% | 9 | <1%a | 14 | 1%a | 17 | 1% |
| Other | 376 | 10% | 226 | 6% | 216 | 9% | 139 | 11% | 68 | 5% | 19 | 1% | 47 | 4% | 68 | 4% |
1 Question was part of a NIOSH-sponsored supplement on occupational health and was asked in 1999 through 2008.
2 The questionnaire was changed to include the "I'm undocumented (that's why they don't treat me well)" response category in 2001; it was not offered in1999 or 2000. A dash (“-“) indicates that the response category was not offered during the corresponding time period.
a Estimates with relative standard errors (RSEs) greater than 30 percent but no more than 50 percent are published but should be used with caution.
b Estimates based on fewer than four responses or with RSEs greater than 50 percent are considered statistically unreliable and are suppressed.