47 Million Lack Health Insurance

[MW]

Ranks of People Without Health Insurance Rising, Says U.S. Census Department (http://www.webmd.com/news/20070829/47-million-lack-health-insurance)
By Miranda Hitti
WebMD Medical News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Aug. 29, 2007 -- Any way you look at it, the ranks of people in the U.S. without health insurance rose last year.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that 47 million people in the U.S. have no health insurance, up from nearly 45 million in 2005.

The percentage breakdown of people in the U.S. without health insurance rose from 15.3% in 2005 to 15.8% in 2006, according to the Census Bureau.

Got an eye for detail? The Census Bureau defined "no health insurance" as lacking any type of health insurance -- including a health insurance plan through your job or union, or coverage through Medicare, Medicaid, the military, or state government programs -- for the entire year.

People who had any type of health insurance for any part of 2006 were considered to have health insurance in 2006.
Health Insurance Statistics

Fewer people got health insurance through their jobs in 2006 than in 2005.

The Census Bureau reports that the percentage of people with health insurance provided through their employers dropped from 60.2% in 2005 to 59.7% in 2006.

Working adults aren't the only ones who are increasingly going without health insurance. Children are also affected.

The Census Bureau's figures show that 11.7% of children younger than 18 had no health insurance in 2006, up from 10.9% in 2005.

The health insurance statistics also show the following racial and ethnic patterns in the ranks of the uninsured from 2005 to 2006:

* The percentage of uninsured whites held steady at 10.8%
* The percentage of uninsured African-Americans rose from 19% to 20.5%
* The percentage of uninsured Hispanics rose from 32.3% to 34.1%
* The percentage of uninsured Asians dropped from 17.2% to 15.5%


Groups React

The American Medical Association (AMA) and the Commonwealth Fund (a private foundation focused on health care) issued statements decrying the state of health insurance in America.

The AMA said that the Census Department's report "is a forceful reminder that action is desperately needed" on America's health insurance situation. The AMA also called the rise in uninsured children "unconscionable."

The Commonwealth Fund notes that "nearly all uninsured adults are employed, and are increasingly likely to be in middle-class families."

[Trueblue]

This is a broken system. :(

I think that we are going to have to change this-but I'm not sure of the best way to go about it.

[bbrown]

47 million uninsured under a multi-layered government health insurance bureaucracy that's had forty years to be worked out? Am I the only one who thinks that the answer is not a new bevy of government programs? Socialized medicine has had its chance and has proven itself to be completely wrongheaded over and over again. Yet people keep blaming our "free market" as the cause.

What we need is to introduce the health care consumer to the issue of costs. When people get disconnected from the real cost of something, their use of it increases and the costs associated balloon. As John Stossel put it (http://www.townhall.com/columnists/JohnStossel/2007/09/25/our_crazy_health-insurance_system?page=full&comments=true):

Imagine if your car insurance covered oil changes and gasoline. You wouldn't care how much gas you used, and you wouldn't care what it cost. Mechanics would sell you $100 oil changes. Prices would skyrocket.

That's how it works in health care. Patients don't ask how much a test or treatment will cost. They ask if their insurance covers it. They don't compare prices from different doctors and hospitals. (Prices do vary.) Why should they? They're not paying. (Although they do in hidden, indirect ways.)

In the end, we all pay more because no one seems to pay anything. It's why health insurance is not a good idea for anything but serious illnesses and accidents that could bankrupt you. For the rest, we should pay out of our savings.

We need to end the state-by-state regulation of insurance companies. (I'd prefer it all to go away, but recognize that that's politically untenable at this point so a federalization would at least make things easier.) We need to make health savings accounts attractive and worthwhile. We need to treat health insurance as something no different from car or home insurance.

The sooner we can create a real free market in health care, the better.

[MW]

I was listening to a program on the radio and the speaker had one good point - that there are lots of younger, single adults who choose not to take the insurance offered at their jobs, in an effort to save some money ("to squeeze one more six pack out of their paychecks") and then something happens and they're in a financial crisis for a long time.

[Ariel]

Yep, my dad is one of them. It sucks. His employer does not offer it, and even if he found it, he would be stuck. He has newly diagnosed heart problems. Had to have heart surgery in August. Has 4 new meds he has to take (Thank goodness for RZ assistance programs) and now has a "pre-existing" condition for if he is ever able to get insurance.

[cassandra]

Everyone in the US makes choices on where they work and know the benefit package before they start working. Healthcare is not a right.

[Ariel]

Everyone in the US makes choices on where they work and know the benefit package before they start working. Healthcare is not a right.

Yes, they may, but it is not easy to be offered the perfect job that offers you insurance with NO pre-existing clause.

[sparks]

Everyone in the US makes choices on where they work and know the benefit package before they start working. Healthcare is not a right.

Are you sure about that? Hospitals by law can't turn someone away because they have no health insurance. But someone's having to pay for that...or write it off on taxes.

[cassandra]

Yes, they may, but it is not easy to be offered the perfect job that offers you insurance with NO pre-existing clause.

Well, if it were the perfect job it would have perfect insurance. :wink

[VRWC]

Are you sure about that? Hospitals by law can't turn someone away because they have no health insurance. But someone's having to pay for that...or write it off on taxes.

Hospitals absolutely can, emergency rooms can not.

[sparks]

Hospitals absolutely can, emergency rooms can not.

ER's are located in hospitals.

[VRWC]

True, but a hospital does not have to give me a triple bypass if it isn't an emergency, so hospitals can turn you away.

[sparks]

True, but a hospital does not have to give me a triple bypass if it isn't an emergency, so hospitals can turn you away.

But if a guy goes to the ER with chest pains wouldn't they be required to do the surgery?

[VRWC]

Not necessarily. If it isn;t immediately life threatening, they patch him up and send em on his way.

[issac the dragon]

Actually, most by-passes are not necessary to save a life. They are done for quality of life issues. Angina is painful. The surgery relieves the pain. Only a small persentage of people have life-threatening angina. And even given the quality of life issue, I'd go with medication. It is big business, and surgeons want to do it.

An ER is required to stablize a patient. Once the situation is not an emergency any more, they can discharge the patient. I know this. I was a nurse.

[patriotsblade]

When we have the technology and services to help sick and injured people and we don't provide it I think it's a moral failure. The US is the only industrialized/advanced nation in the world that does not guarantee the individual right to health care.
I live in Norway at the time being and I will say that this little social democracy is not utopia, it certainly has it's share of problems, but I can also tell you that I have the best health care I have ever had in my entire life (even though my father was a federal employee) and I pay 0 for it. (We have copays but they are next to nothing.) I believe that standardized universal health care should not be looked at as an economic issue but rather as a moral issue.