Dharma E. Cortes, Ph.D.
Harvard Medical School and the University of Massachusetts, Boston
Senior Consultant, Coverage
Project Title: "No one asked me" : An Emic Perspective on Health Insurance Affordability
"The New Connections Program offers the unique opportunity to conduct research designed to uncover in-depth understanding of health coverage from a subjective, experiential vantage point. The fact that this program values and supports this kind of research was the greatest incentive to apply for this award."
Project Description
Cortes will conduct a qualitative study designed to better understand the personal financial impact of the 2006 Massachusetts Health Care Reform (Chapter 58) law among Hispanics. A core component of this bill is its mandate for individuals to obtain "affordable" health insurance coverage or face tax penalties.
There is no documentation of the experiences of ethnic groups such as Hispanics who may not be familiar with the bureaucratic process of enrolling for health insurance and, who may be low income and have limited English proficiency.
Her study will address the following research questions:
- What are the markers that characterize the decision-making process that low-income Hispanics follow to learn about the mandate for individuals to obtain health insurance coverage?
- How do low-income Hispanics determine whether they can afford health insurance premiums established by the government?
- What role does financial distress play in the perception of health insurance affordability?
- What courses of action do low-income Hispanics take when they deem the insurance premium unaffordable?
Biography
Dharma E. Cortes, Ph.D., is a research associate and instructor at Harvard Medical School in the department of psychiatry. She is also a senior research associate at the Mauricio Gaston Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. In addition, Dr. Cortes is a member of the Health Literacy Studies Group at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Cortes has been conducting research with Latinos in the United States for more than 15 years. Her work has focused on the study of culture, mental and physical health and health and mental health service utilization. She has made major contributions to the understanding of the process of acculturation and cultural competence among Latinos in the United States, as well as translations. She is a co-investigator for several projects funded by the National Institutes of Health that focus on Latinos, health and mental health.
Cortes has been a consultant for numerous studies on the delivery of health care services. They have included projects designed to examine barriers to care, cultural issues affecting delivery of health care services, patient perceptions about health care services and organizational aspects affecting the delivery of culturally competent services.
