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The Uninsured Essay

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ABSTRACT As a growing number of Americans find themselves without health insurance, it is demanded that the United States explore innovative policies aimed at extending coverage. The high cost of expanding coverage raises many questions about how best to improve access while preserving individual choice and maintaining quality of care. Differing viewpoints among policymakers, insurers, doctors, hospital administrators, employers, public health advocates, and health policy researchers provide a complete picture of the current and desired state of American healthcare. INTRODUCTION This report is gives a look at numerous factors affecting healthcare and how a lack of insurance has implications to not just the individual, but society as …show more content…

As the overall U.S. population experienced increases in unmet need and delayed care between 2003 and 2007, children were no exception. Low-income children encountered the greatest increase in unmet needs among all children and access to healthcare declined more for people in fair or poor health than for healthier people. The likelihood that a child is uninsured has fallen from 13.9 percent in 1998 to 11.7 percent in 2006. This is highly correlated with the education level of the family head, and the firm size of the family head, and varies with the industry, occupation, work status, and work hours of the family head. An estimated 5 million uninsured children are eligible for Medicaid or SCHIP but are not enrolled. SCHIP was created in 1997 to provide coverage for children who live in families with incomes that exceed Medicaid eligibility caps but cannot afford private coverage. Like Medicaid, it is financed by a combination of federal and state funds. Because of SCHIP, millions of children can now see a doctor when they are sick and get the health care they need. Despite the success of SCHIP, there are still 8.7 million children living without health insurance. This number amounts to more than the total number of kids enrolled in the first and second grades in the United States public school system. To aid in helping these children, Congress must continue to fund SCHIP and make it stronger.

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