Who are the uninsured? All of us, says Dr. Oz
Filed under: Health, Insurance-health
As the numbers continue to mount, the face of the uninsured gets more and complex now that there are 45.7 million uninsured people in the U.S. The TV talk show host Dr. Oz put a face on the uninsured with a recent episode focusing on the uninsured. He traveled to Houston with the help of 700 volunteers and the National Association of Free Clinics (NAFC) to run a free clinic that saw 2,000 uninsured patients in a single day. The NAFC has 1,200 free health clinics as members with six million volunteers nationwide including doctors, nurses and administrative staff.Many of those who joined the ranks of the uninsured in the past two years were people who had good paying jobs, but lost them along with their health insurance as unemployment climbs near 10%. The largest chunk of the uninsured are working families with incomes near or slightly above the poverty line for a family of four -- $22,025. The working poor make up two-thirds of the uninsured.
COBRA, a federal law that mandates employers must continue to offer group insurance to people who lose their jobs as long as they pay for it, is often too expensive for the newly unemployed. The federal government did try to help these newly unemployed by temporarily lowering COBRA payments, but that benefit may soon be lost.As a person who joined the ranks of the insured because I could no longer afford to pay the $1,200 per month premium required by my Florida small business group insurer, I certainly can feel their pain and frustration -- as well as the fears that go with not having health insurance.
But this costly $1,200 per month plan had a $3,000 deductible and even including what insurers contributed to my care I'd never incurred more than $2,000 per year in medical costs including preventive screenings. I just couldn't justify continuing to give the insurance companies so much of my money so they could make a profit.
When you don't have health insurance you tend to put off those preventive screenings. You go to the doctor only when symptoms clearly indicate a problem and by then the actual costs of care could be so much more expensive.
Free clinics saw 4 million patients in 2008 and are on track to see 8 million in 2009, even though funding is down 20%. The clinics get little or no federal funding. Instead they are financed by foundations, grants and donations. Some of their retired volunteers have been lost though as the volunteers are forced back to work during the economic downturn.
Most of the patients going to free clinics come from working households without health insurance. About 40% of the clinics operate on a budget of less than $100,000.
So who makes up the insured, based on a report from the Kaiser Family Foundation:
- 29% of individuals 60 to 64 were denied health insurance coverage who applied for it from individual insurers. Those that are accepted often must pay considerably higher premiums or accept a rider that eliminates some coverage for preexisting conditions.
- 70% of adults make up the population of the U.S. but 80% of those uninsured are adults. Children can more easily get access to care through the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
- 38% of young adults ages 19 to 29 are uninsured.
- 67% of the uninsured come from families at or near the poverty line
You may be only one paycheck away from becoming one of the uninsured. Sixty percent of the population get their insurance from their employer. What will happen to your health insurance if you lose your job?
Lita Epstein has written more than 25 books including "Surviving a Layoff: A Week-By-Week Guide to Getting Your Life Back Together."
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-22-2009 @ 12:44PM
Tony said...
This is a very important topic. I appreciate that this was a balanced report that didn't decay into a call directly for the 'Public Option' or Socialized Medicine.
But think about it this way, if all these people had been able to get along paying for care which allows them to offer cash which increases their bargoning power with the providers. Then they could purchase a 'catastophic plan' in a highly competitive market (like across state lines amount the 1700 insurers nationwide. They wouldn't have to worry about a financial catastophy if they got a serious illness.
This is what could be done without a huge expence at the federal level and everyone would still have their own freedom to make choices without having federal rationing.
This is the kind of discussion we should be having not about the congress trying to ram this socialized medicine down our throats.
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10-22-2009 @ 5:42PM
bloodyhell said...
There are enough social services that these people get already. I'm sick of paying for their kids, their food, their housing, etc. If I have to pay for their medical insurance I'll vote for anyone but these morons in congress and the house.
What ever happened to survival of the fitest? I think lazy animals die in the wild, why not in our society too!
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10-22-2009 @ 12:14PM
Jerry said...
Well, the rubber has hit the road. I paid my part of my employeer the health plan for many years. I could afford COBRA for about a year before running out of money to pay it. I have a degree in engineering, I am fiftyseven and I have not been able to get a job as an engineer since 2005. I work at what ever jobs I can get and the pay is too low to pay for health insurance and still buy even a little food. At this job level "NO" employer offers insurance but even if they did it would be at least 50% of my small pay check. I am a veteran so when I got a very bad case of the flue I went there for 4 days before they could get me in. I lost that job because I was so sick and could not get the meds I needed to wip it. I guess if I moved my familiy under a bridge I could get insurance and maybe buy enough food for my family. It is too late but I now wish I had been borne a Canadian. At least I my family would have health insurance. No I don't feel sorry for my self. I just now know that a responsible person would have move to Canada as a teen! ! ! ! ! ! !
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10-22-2009 @ 5:43PM
Karen said...
If you think waiting 4 days is bad, go to Canada.
10-25-2009 @ 12:54PM
janie said...
i lost my job a few months ago due to retaliation from a out of control boss at a private security company in houston,texas. exxon mobil is their biggest contract. i would love to tell them what goes on at the property. i had been living in a apt with mold for a year with my son. it was on the ceiling my son slept under it until i stopped him. the maintenance came after i left a message threatening to call channel 11 and channel 13 news and he said that is not mold, mold is not black mold is red. my son took pictures on his cell phone and sent them to all of my e-mail addresses and to his e-mail address. we are both very sick. i had been calling them and going in the office complaining i was even telling my co-workers and some supervisors even the cops at work about it.maintenance painted over it covered it up then a month later it started falling on the floor. our eyes itch and burn . my son is having nose bleeds we both are having headaches even though we moved out 2 months ago.i lost my insurance when i lost my job had never used it. my son was in a accident in 07 he was run over by his own vehicle when his van was hit from behind while he getting the battery out. he have multiple broken bones and a lot of complications he never had surgery. he went to counyty hospital on a thursday night by ambulance and LBJ hospital let him go sunday afternoon afew days later. he had no surgery or nothing.broke arm, 3 broke ribs, broke hip, 3 discs in his neck broke. 4 teeth knoked out at the top the rest are all loose now. i cannot remember everything but they told him he would heal on his own. he was sent out with no wheel chair in bloody gown and bloody socks. my cousin went to bring him clothes and pick him up but he came out side in the same bloody gown he had on in the hospital all because his gold card had expired. he was working at bush airport and had gotten off and still had his uniform on but he could not afford insurance and that is why he had a harris county gold card. when he was going for check ups they were demandind cash up front. so i need to know about these free clinics. i am going to a hospital in my neighborhood tomorrow and pray that they will see me my lungs feel like they are about to cave in at this very moment.
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10-22-2009 @ 7:16PM
Joan said...
Bloody hell, You are a selfish son of a "b" Wait till something happens to you or your family...lose your job, catastrophic illness or whatever...you are going to be the first in line with your hand out.
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10-22-2009 @ 7:42PM
DON said...
WE NEVER HAD INSURANCE GROWING UP NOR DID MOST OF THE PEOPLE IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD PRIOR TO THE BIG SPACE RACE AND COLD WAR. WHAT IS ALL THE FUSS?
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10-23-2009 @ 4:07AM
Jaime said...
Interesting how people who currently have jobs and insurances refer to the uninsured as "these people" and talk about them as if we are undesirables and they're opposed and fighting not to pay/subsideze our care. These people that are saying this, will totally find themselve singing a different tune if/when they become unemployed and are abandoned and forgotten by insurance companies. It's the ugly selfishness that is dominating the debate and all that comes out of hateful conservatives who are afraid of the governing doing what's long overdue...to help those who, like me, worked all there life, paid premiums and now find ourselves aboned. After paying into the money hungry and cruel insurance companies...I don't feel I am entitled to any handover, it's not a handover...I paid my dues, I was fairly healthy during my prime working years..now all I am asking for is for affodable health care that I deserve...the insurance companies are not voluntaring it...so I applaud the Obama administration and the Gov of the greatest country in the world to fix a shameful, pitiful insurance system. Americans have become so selfish over the past couple of generations..it's all about me, me, me...I got mine, too bad you don't have insurance. It's about time we had a President and a Government with the cojones to do something about it.
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