Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

Finding Answers About the Uninsured, Pt.6 – What’s the Fix/summary

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The last sub-segment without health insurance covered here and most rapidly-growing, surprisingly, is comprised of those well-above the poverty-level. This is the “mid to upper” income levels. That is, those households with annual incomes above $50,000, but without health insurance. In the ten-year period between 1997 and 2006, this segment has increased by almost 66%! This represents an increase of, around, 7 million Americans. These households are deemed to be able to afford health insurance, but still don’t secure it. So the total number of this segment today stands around 18 million people.

What are these 47 million, or so, people doing about it? One might think they are going broke without-of-pocket medical bills. However, that does not seem to be the case. In a recent article by Health Affairs, we are told that those people without health insurance actually spend less of their income on medical bills then their counterparts, who have employee-based health insurance plans. It was reported that the uninsured only spend 3.8% of their income on medical bills, while those with employer-based health insurance actually spend 5.6%.

What’s the fix? Because the information presented here is such good ‘data’, it must be considered just that. This study is not comprehensive enough to assure “ceteris Parabus” (other conditions being held equal). When specific inferences are made based on broad data, the door is left wide open for “multi-colinearities and other inconsistencies. Inferences rendered thus far have been based on broad data. One could simply infer that “Because those without health insurance spend less on medical then those who do, our nation should outlaw health insurance altogether.” Make any sense? What about covering those with pre-existing conditions? Do we throw them out with the dishwater? What about those who worry and lay awake at night that their children are going without medical care, or that the next major illness will bankrupt them. Using only this data, a debate for a fix would be endless. But armed with this vital data and applied to more comprehensive considerations, this data is vital. Please apply it along with all the other great on-going research that is freely available every day.