Uninsured and Underinsured in America

it. Not everyone has access to health insurance and there are those that are underinsured. “ In

Vulnerable populations is a term that creates an image of distinct and narrow-minded minority though the vulnerability of every individual to illness, disease, and injury has made health insurance necessary and probable for a huge portion of the American population. Vulnerable populations in the United States includes parents and children of immigrants, race/ethnic minorities, the disabled poor, the elderly, foster children, families ineligible for welfare, prison inmates and former offenders, children with special care needs, and residents of rural areas. However, the uninsured population has developed to become one of the vulnerable populations in the United States because of the risks and dangers associated with the lack of health insurance. As a result of the increased of the number of the uninsured, they have a huge financial impact on the vulnerable population.

This is a paper about the issues involving uninsured Americans and what we can do to improve healthcare in America.

With the current healthcare system in the United States there are many people who do not have health insurance due to cost.

The uninsured and underinsured populations create a burden on society. Due to the high cost of health care services, many bills remain unpaid. Health care providers must absorb this expense and there is often a spillover of the cost to the insured population, usually in the form of increased fees for service. A study by the Institute of Medicine Committee found that there are several other costs consequent to uninsurance. The workforce faces diminished productivity due to people not seeking preventative and palliative care, which could lead to missing shifts, leaving the job, or retiring early for health purposes.

Uninsured people are both less likely than those with coverage to use any health services in a given year and have lower expenditures for services on average (Taylor et al., 2001). As earlier Committee reports demonstrated, this lower level of utilization is the source of one hidden cost of uninsurance—higher morbidity and mortality as a result of using fewer and less appropriate health care services. The Committee does not mean to imply by this comparison, however, that all of the additional use of services by those with coverage is effective and appropriate, but simply that the greater amounts of services used by insured populations are associated with and contribute to their better health outcomes, relative to those of uninsured populations.

Even with employer-sponsored programs and federal programs for those who qualify, many Americans are uninsured. Over 46 million Americans had no health insurance in 2006, and 86.7 million went without health insurance at some point in 2007 and 2008 (“Health Care Issues”). Why has the number of uninsured risen so drastically and why are employer-sponsored programs dwindling?

The expenses for managers will keep on rising, the quantity of uninsured individuals will likewise keep on increasing with an augmenting gap between what can be afforded and what is accessible. The rate of the uninsured will reach out into the present working class. These disappointed people, and their managers, may vote in favor of an adjustment in the health care

     Most of the people who are uninsured are the working poor, which the overall costs of medical care can hurt them. By the means of doing their best, these people just can’t afford the insurance. Health care has become increasingly unaffordable for businesses and individuals. (Reese) Premiums grow several

It is estimated there are between 20,000 and 45,000 deaths a year due to lack of health insurance. “The uninsured have a higher risk of death when compared to the privately insured…”, Andrew Wilper, M.D. Isn’t that sad? There shouldn’t be long hours of waiting before a patient can be treated just because he or she is uninsured. If it is an urgent matter, then we all should get equal treatment, don’t you

Someone without health coverage are less likely to receive preventative care and therefore more likely to become ill which increases medical costs, [1].

Financial burdens greatly limit the system’s accessibility; however, many in the U.S. are unable to fully utilize either option. Census estimates from 1999 indicate that 43 million Americans live without health insurance even though 75 percent of them have a full-time job or live in a household with at least one member working full-time (Mueller, , 5) In addition to the totally uninsured, census estimates also reveal that approximately 42 million other people in the U.S. are underinsured. This means that they have some insurance, but are still unable to afford all of their needed prescriptions, tests, visits to physicians, or hospital

In addition to those who are unemployed, you also have the Americans that are employed and still uninsured. These Americans either choose not to have health insurance or they are still unable to afford it. I have been there, I had to choose more money on my paycheck over having health insurance. For most, being uninsured is not a choice, insurance is simply unaffordable. In an article on The Economic Impact Of The Uninsured it states that “eighty percent of uninsured people are employed, or live in a home where a family member is employed. Their plight has nothing to do with a slow economy” (Knowledge@Emory). More young Americans look at insurance as a luxury not a necessity. However, when the unknown happens then these young people are faced with an enormous

Access to preventive health care should not be definable as one of life’s luxuries, yet that is what is has come to be for the approximately “50 million Americans” who have no health insurance (Turka & Caplan, 2010). Clogged emergency rooms and “preventable deaths” are just two of the consequences associated with the lack of health insurance that would provide access to preventive care (Turka & Caplan, 2010). We as a nation are depriving our citizens of one of our most basic needs—being healthy.

As stated in the text, the United States provides a market based health system. Not until recently, the majority of the population could only access the insurance market through an employer based system. The ability to acquire insurance or gain access into the market outside of this medium was, in most cases, exorbitant for the average citizen. Nevertheless, government assistance programs like Medicare and Medicaid were made available to certain demographics of the population who qualified for these programs, such as citizens from the age of 65 and above, expecting mothers, as well as newly born infants. The rest of the population demographic 18-44 which consist of the highest number of uninsured, is left to either attain insurance through their employers after gaining full-time employee