Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

Health Insurance Still Plummeting, Pt.3 – How large is this group and how was it created?

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A spokesperson for the Commonwealth Fund arrived at the summation that the ‘underinsured’ (those with inadequate health insurance’ “look like those who had no health insurance (the ‘uninsured’)”. So how significant is this combined group”? According to Tuesday’s online posting of the journal Health Affairs, the number is 75 million adults last year having either no health insurance or having inadequate health insurance. This represents a 42% jump from 2003. The statistics were based on a random representive sample of 2,616 adults that ranged from 19 – 64 years of age.

Why do these with inadequate health insurance look so much like those who have no health insurance? They seem to all relate to floundering economy, which began around the 2000 presidential elections. This signaled an immediate end of prosperity for the masses. The high-paying job market froze up. Massive lay-offs soon followed. The lucky few who were able to find new employment were now faced with low pay and few benefits. The, already-struggling, employers were now faced with soaring health insurance costs. To save from going under, they were forced to cut costs any way they could. A prime target, of course, was the benefits package. So many began shifting their rising expenses to their employees for health insurance and started reducing the value of the benefits that they offered. There were very few applicants, that were fortunate enough to land a job at all, who were willing to protest. This is one major cause for the ‘underinsured’ demise.

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