Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

Major 'Underinsured' Sector, Pt.3 -- Above poverty hardest hit.

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Numerous articles are being published, as of recent concerning the plight of the segment (200% to 300% of ‘poverty’). All across our nation, these people are struggling. (For more on this study, please refer to my series of articles entitled “Insure the Uninsured, Pt.1 -- Expanding the Commonwealth Care program.”, found in the June 2008 Archive of this site.) Anyway, the report states that those with incomes above 200% ‘poverty’ have been hard hit. With continuing success by giving this segment special consideration, perhaps the Fed will consider a more realistic poverty standard. Ms. Davis of the Commonwealth recommends "We need to extend effective, affordable health insurance to all." She states that "Shifting costs to patients is not an equitable or effective solution to rising health-care costs.” She further stresses that now is the time to look at serious changes in the methods we currently use in how we pay for health insurance and the way health services are delivered. The big picture is for a nationwide solution for this plight of the "uninsured and underinsured Americans," which now numbers in the tens of millions. In order to get these figures, a national health insurance survey was conducted last year from a representative sample of 3,501 American adults. For the segment of 19 to 64 year-old adults with inadequate health insurance the number was projected to be 25.2 million. One criteria they used was based on “out-of-pocket health-care costs as a proportion of income.” The results were startling.

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