How many times have you not gone to the doctor, dentist, or other because you are not currently covered under any health insurance plan? I’m sitting here in a fortunate situation where I have health coverage for both myself and my son. However, I can recall many days just paying for his coverage and none for me, or better yet going over a year without getting the necessary health care services because I couldn’t afford paying out of pocket. I’m curious to know a few things as well as share a few things….
Here are some facts I found:
- Several studies estimate the number of uninsured Americans. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly 46 million Americans, or 18 percent of the population under the age of 65, were without health insurance in 2007, their latest data available.1
- Nearly 90 million people – about one-third of the population below the age of 65 spent a portion of either 2007 or 2008 without health coverage.5
- The large majority of the uninsured (85 percent) are native or naturalized citizens.6
- Over 8 in 10 uninsured people come from working families – almost 70 percent from families with one or 7
- Studies estimate that the number of excess deaths among uninsured adults age 25-64 is in the range of 22,000 a year. This mortality figure is more than the number of deaths from diabetes (17,500) within the same age group.8
- On average, the uninsured are 9 to 10 times more likely to forgo medical care because of cost and twice as likely to have medical debt. 9
- Over the last decade, disparities between the uninsured and insured widened in access to a usual source of care, annual check-ups, and preventive care, and are the greatest in disparities and our growing. 6
SOURCE: http://www.nchc.org/facts/coverage.shtml
Given the facts listed above, I often ask myself where I live and why in 2009 we are still struggling to provide healthcare to ALL Americans? It should never be solely about income or access when our health is involved. There should be (in my opinion) universal care or at the bare minimum affordable care with limited ways for major Insurance Companies to deny coverage based on health issues that NO ONE ever chose to have…..What do you think? How many times have you gone without? Incurred debt due to your inability to pay extremely high doctor or hospital bills? Sad day…what do you have to say?
