Vulnerable population: the uninsured and underinsured

Running Head : Uninsured and Underinsured

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Uninsured and underinsured

The uninsured are those people who do not have health insurance coverage . The underinsured are those individuals with inadequate health insurance coverage estimating the uninsured population is much easier as compared to the underinsured , whereby it is very difficult to define inadequate . Providing health care services to the uninsured and underinsured has proven to be a big challenge because the number of uninsured patients is increasing with time . During recent years , there has

been a decline in employer-based coverage leaving many working families without health insurance coverage . In the United States , the uninsured population has been increasing due to factors such as cutbacks in Medicaid and welfare and also the erosion of employer-based health insurance coverage . Most of the individuals lacking health insurance are low income earners and can be classified as poor . For the employed , the nature of employment and size of business , determines the cost of coverage an individual is going to be given (Patel , Rushefsky , 2006

The uninsured and underinsured face many challenges both in their health and financial status . Most people living in rural areas are uninsured because they are either unemployed or have low earning jobs These people pay more for health services than their insured counterparts and experience poor health outcomes . Diseases and ailments that could have been easily treated go untreated and become serious health problems . Increasing the number of the insured and underinsured translates into lack of access to health care services for a large number of people . This leads to increased risk for serious health problems and death . This is a very costly burden for the community . Many individuals lack health care insurance coverage due to the rising cost of health insurance premiums and erosion in employer-sponsored coverage Lack of access to health care impacts negatively both on the individuals and the community . This population experiences lack of access to preventive and primary health care services , higher mortality rates and poor use of health care services

Demographics of the uninsured and underinsured

Uninsured individuals are mainly below the age of 64 years because Medicare covers for the elderly above 65 years of age . Among this group the majority of uninsured are young adults between ages of 19 and 24 because they are assumed to be healthy or still in school . Individuals between the ages of 55 and 64 are uninsured due to the erosion of employer based coverage for retirees (Ubel , 2001 .Single parents have a higher livelihood of being uninsured than married couples because they have one source of more and lesser changes of employment-based coverage Self employment individuals and those working for smaller industries are less likely to have health insurance coverage people from minority groups have the highest number of uninsured population . These include Hispanic and Black Americans who are said to have incomes below 200 of the federal poverty level . This is mainly because many of them are poor or non-citizen . Rates of up...