Most doctors believe health insurance coverage — rather than race, income, gender, or sexual orientation — determines the type of care a patient receives, according to a 2001 Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) survey.

A majority, or 72 percent of the 2,608 doctors polled for KFF's 2001 "National Survey of Physicians," say they agree that the health care system in the United States treats people unfairly "very often" or "somewhat often" based on whether they have health insurance coverage. This majority said this no matter whether the doctors answering the questions were Asian, black, Latino, or white.

In contrast, most doctors say the health care system "rarely" or "never" treats people unfairly based on how much money they have (52 percent), how well they speak English (55 percent), how well educated they are (60 percent), their race or ethnicity (69 percent), whether they are physically disabled (76 percent), their sexual orientation (75 percent), or their gender (84 percent).

However, the survey did find the doctors' race or ethnicity played a significant part in whether they believe a patient's race or ethnicity plays a role in how they receive medical treatment. Seventy-seven percent of black and 52 percent of Latino doctors say unfair treatment based on race or ethnicity happens at least somewhat often, compared with 33 percent of Asian and only 25 percent of white doctors.

	Very often	Somewhat often	Rarely	Never
Insurance	31 percent	41 percent	24 percent	3 percent
Income	14 percent	33 percent	42 percent	10 percent
English fluency	9 percent	34 percent	44 percent	11 percent
Education	8 percent	31 percent	48 percent	12 percent
Race	6 percent	23 percent	55 percent	14 percent
Sexual orientation	4 percent	19 percent	59 percent	16 percent
Physical disability	3 percent	20 percent	57 percent	19 percent
Gender	2 percent	13 percent	57 percent	27 percent