Mahajan S, Caraballo C, Lu Y, et al. - From 1999 to 2018, racial and ethnic differences in self-reported health status, access, and affordability improved in some subgroups but largely persisted in a serial cross-sectional survey of US adults.

• The sample consisted of 596,355 adults (mean [SE] age, 46.2 [0.07] years, 51.8% [SE, 0.10] women), of whom 4.7% were Asian, 11.8% were Black, 13.8% were Latino/Hispanic, and 69.7% were White.

• The estimated percentages of low-income Asians, Blacks, Latino/Hispanics, and Whites were 28.2%, 46.1%, 51.5%, and 23.9%, respectively.

• Black people with low income had the highest estimated prevalence of poor or fair health status, whereas White people with middle and high income had the lowest.

• In 1999, Black people had a significantly higher estimated prevalence of poor or fair health status than White people, regardless of income level.

• From 1999 to 2018, racial and ethnic gaps in poor or fair health status did not change significantly, with or without income stratification, with the exception of a significant decrease in the difference between White and Black individuals with low income, which was no longer statistically significant in 2018.

• Black and white people had the highest levels of self-reported functional limitations, which increased significantly over time across all groups.

• With and without income stratification, there were significant reductions in racial and ethnic differences in some self-reported measures of healthcare access, but not affordability.