Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

Major 'Underinsured' Sector, Pt.4 -- Problem looms 60% just in 4 years.

Previous…

It was found that the segment of ‘underinsured’ adults of working age has loomed to an increase of 60%. That’s just “over the last four years!” This information shared by a senior vice president at The Commonwealth, Cathy Schoen, who is also a co-author of this study. The greater picture is "A jump up to 25 million underinsured in 2007, compared to only 16 million in 2003." Considering the total segment of this age group, which numbers about 75 million Americans, around 42% were either in this ‘underinsured’ category or didn’t have any health insurance at all last year. This indicates a significant 33% increase from 2003. These statistics are also shared and explained by Ms. Schoen. The criteria used here as the ‘underinsured’ were that these people had health insurance, but still had to spend excessive amounts for medical costs that were out-of-pocket. For those people below the 200% of ‘poverty’ level the out-of-pocket cost percentage used was 5% of their income. For those with incomes above the 200% of ‘poverty’ mark, the percentage used was 10%. There is also another criteria used to qualify being ‘underinsured’. This, typically, comes from high deductibles. It is measured as those paying "5% or more of family income” toward those deductibles. With the advent of the latest trend, that is promoting ‘scaled-down’, ‘bare-bones’ and ‘catastrophic’ health insurance plans. They are rapidly becoming the latest craze and many, if not most, states are jumping on the bandwagon like flies on food. The results of these new initiatives by states like Florida and the many others will be revealed in future studies like this.

Continued…