According to the results of a recently ended study conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, about 25 percent of the Hispanics currently located in the United States do not have personal physicians who they can contact if a medical emergency comes up.

As William Vega, a family medicine professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, pointed out, these statistics are quite concerning, as Hispanics represent the biggest US minority group, with a total of around 45 million people.

He went on to say that there is a series of factors which greatly influences one’s perception of medical care; he mentioned the period of time spent in the country and being born in the country as having a significant influence on how people grow to appreciate and handle the health care system.

Other results of the study included the facts that Hispanic women are more likely to have a personal doctor than men (the difference being of 20 percent, from 37 to 17) and that older Hispanics are more likely to have a personal health care provider than young ones. Education was also found to be quite relevant; while one third of high school dropouts turned out to be lacking a regular provider, only 19 percent of those with college studies were in the same situation.

Another important aspect was that regarding access to health insurance. Emilia Guenechea, working with UNLV's Center For Health Disparities Research, who is also a Hispanic immigrant, said a lot of people get part time jobs that don’t provide the appropriate benefits.