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Friday, April 20th, 2012

26% Of Working Age Adults In USA Lack Health Insurance

Author:     CHRISTIAN NORDQVIST
Source:     Medical News Today
Publication Date:     19 Apr 2012 - 18:00 PDT
 Link: 26% Of Working Age Adults In USA Lack Health Insurance
Stephan:   This country is failing to meet the needs of its people. It's really just as simple as that. Today I went in to have testing done for my annual physical and was struck, once again, by the fact that the first question I was asked was: Can you pay for this? Prove it to me. The tests ran to several thousand dollars. For the people covered in this report most would not have been able to get the tests. When I got a severe bronchitis in France a couple of years ago, while visiting my sister, I went to the doctor -- having no insurance there, nor being a citizen -- and was welcomed by the clinic, tested and treated, with no questions about payment. When I finally asked, it cost me $30.

Just over one quarter (26%) of all Americans of working age in 2011 experienced a gap in health insurance cover, says a new report published by the Commonwealth Fund. The authors explained that in many cases, when people change their jobs or become unemployed, many of them lose health coverage.

It can be extremely difficult to recover employer-sponsored health coverage after it is lost, the report showed. 69% of those who spent time with no health insurance, did so for at least 12 months; for 57% the period was longer than two years.

The data, which is based on the 2011 Commonwealth Fund Health Insurance Tracking Survey of U.S. Adults, showed that among those who had no insurance when the survey took place, 41% reported having had employer-sponsored coverage. 67% of individuals who lost their employer-sponsored coverage said the main reason for their loss of coverage was a loss or change of employment.
Many cannot find affordable insurance coverage on their own
The report, entitled ‘Gaps in Health Insurance: Why So Many Americans Experience Breaks in Coverage and How the Affordable Care Act Will Help’, explained that purchasing coverage on their own is either not an option, or extremely hard for a […]

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