Korean Immigrants’ Barriers to Health care and Their Coping Strategies in the United States

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  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 03. Nativity and Health

Abstract

This paper examines Korean immigrants’ barriers and difficulties in utilizing healthcare in the U.S. and their coping strategies for dealing with these issues. Analyzing survey data with 507 Korean immigrants and in-depth personal interviews with 120 Korean immigrants in the New York- New Jersey area, this paper finds that more than half of Korean immigrants experience difficulties in utilizing healthcare in the United States. The language barrier was the most frequent response, followed by having uninsured status. Language barrier does not simply mean linguistic difficulties in communicating with healthcare professionals in English. Rather, it has interpersonal aspects, such as a power imbalance between patients and non-Korean speaking doctors. Korean immigrants show three distinctive healthcare behaviors as coping strategies for dealing with these barriers: preference for and dependence on co-ethnic doctors in the U.S., seeking Hanbang (traditional Korean/Chinese holistic/herbal medicine) in the U.S., and medical tours to the homeland. The first two healthcare behaviors are not significantly associated with each other. However, they are significantly related to the last behavior, medical tourism. Korean immigrants who prefer to see co-ethnic doctors and to practice Hanbang are more likely to take medical tours to the home country than others. These findings contribute to the literature on immigrants’ healthcare behaviors by showing that immigrants are active rather than passive agents who react to barriers to healthcare utilization in the receiving country.

Author

• Sou Hyun Jang, Graduate Center, The City University of New York