The Uninsured
...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 a whole. The number of America’s uninsured has increased steadily over the past quarter century. In 2005, nearly 47 million Americans were uninsured, representing close to one-sixth of the nation’s population. Suffering from high levels of economic insecurity and poor health outcomes, the uninsured place large costs on the U.S. economy. Success in extending coverage depends upon making health plans affordable enough so that individuals and families can obtain coverage without excessive financial burden.
Trends in the United States economy continue to unravel the relationship between employer and employee, the means by which workers obtain group health insurance through their employers. The result has been an increasing number of uninsured individuals. Although President George Bush proposed a change in tax laws having an effect on health insurance in his 2007 State of the Union address, health insurance coverage has been a low-priority policy issue in Washington in recent years.
Recent success by Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in reducing the number of uninsured children has led to interest in expanding these programs to cover uninsured parents. Despite gradual progress towards...
View Full Essay
