[영문]Objectives. This study examines how parental reports of communicationproblems with health providers vary over a wider range of characteristics of lowincome children than considered in previous studies.Methods. Data were drawn from the 1999 and 2002 National Survey ofAmerica’s Families. Communication problems, insurance type, socioeconomiccharacteristics, health factors, and provider type were examined. Data wereanalyzed using bivariate and multivariate techniques.Results. Bivariate analysis identified that the parents of 24.4% of low incomechildren and 36.4% of publicly covered low income children with a Spanishinterview reported poor communication with health providers. Coefficientsfrom regression analysis suggest that, controlling for covariates, foreign-bornparents with a Spanish interview were 11.8 percentage points (p,0.01) morelikely to report communication problems than U.S.-born parents with an Englishinterview. Among low income publicly covered children with a Spanish interview,regression analysis suggests that parents of children who used clinics orhospital outpatient departments as their usual source of care were 9.5 percentagepoints (p,0.05) more likely to report communication problems comparedwith those whose usual source of care was a doctor’s or HMO office.Conclusions. Implementing policies to improve communication barriers forlow income children, particularly those with foreign-born parents whose nativelanguage is not English, may be necessary to reduce health disparities relativeto higher income children across a variety of health domains includingutilization, satisfaction, and outcomes. Focusing attention on the availability ofprofessional translation services in clinics or hospital outpatient departmentsmay be a cost-effective strategy for reducing communication problems forpublicly insured children.