The Changing Face of the Uninsured
<p>America's uninsured crisis disproportionately affects lower-income working families. But new survey data show that moderate-income Americans are increasingly going without health coverage as well.<br><br>According to <a href="/cnlib/pub/enews_clickthrough.htm?enews_item_id=21824&return_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ecmwf%2Eorg%2Fpublications%2Fpublications%5Fshow%2Ehtm%3Fdoc%5Fid%3D367876%26%23doc367876">Gaps in Health Insurance: An All-American Problem</a>, a report prepared for the Commonwealth Fund's Commission on a High Performance Health System, two of five working-age Americans with annual incomes between $20,000 and $40,000 were uninsured for at least part of the past year. This represents a dramatic and rapid rise from 2001, when just over one-quarter of this group was uninsured.<br><br>The study, authored by Sara R. Collins, Ph.D., and colleagues at the Fund, finds that 21 percent of adults surveyed, insured as well as uninsured, are struggling to pay off medical debt, while nearly 60 percent of chronically ill adults with a recent time uninsured skipped their medications because they could not afford them.<br><br>The survey also found that the uninsured are more likely to go without recommended cancer, cholesterol, and blood pressure screenings. A <a href="http://www.covertheuninsured.org">Robert Wood Johnson Foundation analysis</a> released today confirms similar trends in every state.<br><br>To read what the following experts have to say about the new study, visit the <a href="/cnlib/pub/enews_clickthrough.htm?enews_item_id=21845&return_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ecmwf%2Eorg%2Fpublications%2Fpublications%5Fshow%2Ehtm%3Fdoc%5Fid%3D368538%26%23doc368538">Fund Web site</a>: James Mongan, M.D., president and CEO, Partners HealthCare and chair, Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System; Fernando Guerra, M.D., director, City of San Antonio Metropolitan Health District and member, Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System; Helen Darling, president, National Business Group on Health; and Gerald Shea, assistant to the president for government affairs, AFL-CIO.</p>
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/newsletters/ealerts/2006/apr/the-changing-face-of-the-uninsured