Remaining Uninsured

The U.S. healthcare system is remarkably complex, and even healthcare workers struggle to understand it. The U.S. population gets health coverage by government programs, employers, and private insurance. Notably, because of the complexity and fragmentation of the health care system, there is a percentage of the population that remains uninsured. According to CNN Money, the uninsured rate in the U.S. dropped from 18.2% in 2010 to 10.3% in 2016, this drop was under Affordable Care Act(ACA) (). The goal of the ACA was not to give health coverage to all the uninsured population, rather it was to try to decrease the percentage of the population that remained uninsured(). There is a lot of inequality in the distribution of health among the U.S. population

In addition to those who are unemployed, you also have the Americans that are employed and still uninsured. These Americans either choose not to have health insurance or they are still unable to afford it. I have been there, I had to choose more money on my paycheck over having health insurance. For most, being uninsured is not a choice, insurance is simply unaffordable. In an article on The Economic Impact Of The Uninsured it states that “eighty percent of uninsured people are employed, or live in a home where a family member is employed. Their plight has nothing to do with a slow economy” (Knowledge@Emory). More young Americans look at insurance as a luxury not a necessity. However, when the unknown happens then these young people are faced with an enormous

Large populations of Americans are uninsured mainly because of the high cost of insurance. Majority of the uninsured are the low-income working families’. The adults represent a higher percentage of the uninsured than children. Before the law, you could be denied coverage or treatment because you had been sick in the past, be dropped mid-treatment for making a simple mistake on your application, hence, the Affordable Care Act was implemented into law on March 23, 2010 by President Barrack Obama to make sure that every American irrespective of their status will be insured and have full access to proper health care benefits, rights and protection(1). To understand the

Vulnerable populations is a term that creates an image of distinct and narrow-minded minority though the vulnerability of every individual to illness, disease, and injury has made health insurance necessary and probable for a huge portion of the American population. Vulnerable populations in the United States includes parents and children of immigrants, race/ethnic minorities, the disabled poor, the elderly, foster children, families ineligible for welfare, prison inmates and former offenders, children with special care needs, and residents of rural areas. However, the uninsured population has developed to become one of the vulnerable populations in the United States because of the risks and dangers associated with the lack of health insurance. As a result of the increased of the number of the uninsured, they have a huge financial impact on the vulnerable population.

The idea of passing the health care reform was to expand health care coverage, however, in order to do so, many changes must be implemented in order to fulfill the ACA 's promises. The first of which is allowing all individuals to acquire health insurance no matter the age, pre-existing conditions, or other unfair practices. Statistics show that “half of Americas” have a preexisting medical condition in which with the passage of the ACA, it allows individuals to acquire health insurance without the worry of having to pay high insurance bills (Moisse, 2011). The reason why having preexisting health conditions is no longer a factor in acquiring health insurance is because with the passage of the ACA (as discussed earlier, it was made a mandate to acquire health insurance) it is expected that it will balance out economically with the people who require more medical help to their healthier counterparts that do not require as much medical attention (Goodnough, 2016).

While the Affordable Care Act has rapidly reduced the number of uninsured Americans, there are still millions of people living without health insurance. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s 2015 poll, 46% of Americans tried to get Marketplace coverage- such as independent insurance companies- but the cost was too expensive. Many uninsured citizens are a part of a “coverage gap” that doesn’t give an affordable option for healthcare. The population that is a part of the coverage gap would earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, yet not enough to qualify for a Marketplace monthly premium. By eliminating or reducing the coverage gap through the creation of policy changes, the number of uninsured Americans would decline. Additionally, only

The majority of uninsured Americans include young adults, immigrants and people in the Medicaid gap.

Before the Affordable Care Act, 50.7 million Americans (16.7 percent) were uninsured. The main reason for this was money. The majority of these uninsured American families simply couldn’t afford health insurance and those who did have insurance spent a good chunk of their income to pay for it. The percentage of Americans who were covered by employment-based health insurance (the most popular form of insurance at the time) was the lowest it had been since 1987 when the first statistics on

With the development of public health in U.S., the health insurance coverage has benefited most American citizens. But there is a large ethnic minority group in the U.S. which is most likely to lack coverage, Hispanics. Concerning Latinos with health, there is a barrier for Latinos to get health care. Latinos who are not citizens or permanent residents do not have health insurance, even though PPACA legal non-citizen residents will be able to buy insurance. Without health insurance, Hispanics face health disparities that make them suffer with bad health outcomes and having a higher illness rates.

Individuals who are uninsured tend to be at risk in several ways. They include not having access to preventive care, holding back in seeking treatment may result into more serious illnesses thereby making treatment even more expensive for them to afford. Most public health facilities do not satisfy the needs of many uninsured Americans. Unlike their counterparts, uninsured individuals are

Thanks for the informative post on the underinsured problems. I agree with you in the fact that, people have a tendency to attempt to solve one issue with another, as you mentioned trying to treat insomnia by drinking alcohol. The lack of adequate health insurance coverage has noted an impact on the health of the people. People would ignore the preventive care measures and visiting the primary care physician for regular checkups as these costs high. When people have to use a major part of their income towards health care costs, people become non-compliant with their health needs. If these people have any chronic conditions, it gets difficult to manage these illnesses. These people will end up in many complications. The uncontrollable progression

In Tennessee alone, we are once again facing an obstacle under the umbrella of healthcare coverage. In 2017, 3 regions in the state of Tennessee will lose coverage from BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee (BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, 2016). It will leave 100,000 individuals looking for coverage through other marketplace plan providers. BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee stated that they had to pull out of Obamacare in these three regions due to profit losses over the last 3 years (BCBST, 2016). It may seem simple enough to others that these individuals just go get another plan from someone else. We must first consider affordability. Will Cigna and Humana offer plans that are similar to the BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee plans? Will consumers have nearly the same or the same benefits as before? There are many different changes that may occur by simply changing insurance plans. The consumers may not be able to have the same providers. They may not have the same medication coverage as before. The deductible could change and make the policy invaluable to the individual based on their needs. Obtaining coverage has been an ongoing uphill battle for some. Our state and federal legislators all share different views on healthcare issues. The Healthcare Reform Act of 2010 brought

Hypothesis: High rates of Immigrants in a state could be a reason for high rates of uninsured among several other

Given that were are studying about vulnerable population, I wondered what the numbers would look like if they were separated by race. I decided to further research which group of people lack health insurance coverage . According to the KFF, 8.1% of uninsured where whites, Hispanics made 17.2% and people

     Most of the people who are uninsured are the working poor, which the overall costs of medical care can hurt them. By the means of doing their best, these people just can’t afford the insurance. Health care has become increasingly unaffordable for businesses and individuals. (Reese) Premiums grow several