Uninsured Characteristics

Americans spend more per capita on healthcare than any other country in the world (OCED, 2013). However, there are still Americans that go without health insurance. Some Americans are uninsured because they choose to be, not because they can’t afford to be, known as the “voluntarily uninsured”. While those that are uninsured because they cannot afford insurance are known as the “involuntarily uninsured”. There are also different healthcare payers; government payers, such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Tricare, and the privately insured. Each group has their own set of characteristics which majorly define them, or which they majorly define. Carefully examining some of the characteristics of each group help to determine other characteristics, such
5). The uninsured are split into two groups, the voluntarily uninsured and the involuntarily uninsured. The authors of “Who Are the Uninsured? An Analysis of the Characteristics of Americans Without Health Insurance,” determined that the ability to pay threshold is when the income is at or above 2.5 times the poverty line. This threshold is different from state to state and for individuals or families. Those with incomes above this cut off have the ability to pay for healthcare coverage, and if they do not choose to be covered they are “voluntarily uninsured.” However below the threshold, these individuals are likely not able to pay for health and are “involuntarily uninsured.” It is important to note, that health insurance in economics is viewed as a “normal good”; when incomes rises, so does expenditure on health insurance O’Neil and O’Neil, 2009, pg. 7). This is also true when comparing the percentage of insured to income level measured as multiple of the poverty line; as income increases over the poverty level, there is an increase in insurance coverage. Those with incomes equal to or less than 1.25 times the poverty level, only 35.6% were insured and between1.25-2.5 times the poverty level, only 60.8% were insured. Those without insurance in these levels are termed as “involuntarily uninsured. However, at 2.5-2.75 times above the
The out-of-pocket expenditures was slightly higher by the privately insured, $777 vs. $644. However, the uninsured relied more heavily on other payment sources: public, private or implicitly subsidized (O’Neil and O’Neil, 2009, pg. 23). Being uninsured not only puts financial consequences on individual and the public, while it is difficult to determine, health outcomes may be affected by insurance status. In 2002, The Institute of Medicine found that between breast cancer patients, those that are uninsured have a higher risk of dying then those that are privately insured. It may be argued that the insured population has more access to preventative healthcare and annual screening and that these diseases may be prevented or caught earlier if the patient has better access to healthcare. Unfortunately, demographics such as education and socio-economic status differ significantly between the insured and uninsured. These demographics make it extremely difficult to create a correlation between insurance status and health outcomes. A 2006 hazard survival analysis examined the correlation between insurance coverage and mortality. The analysis controlled for concerning demographics such as education, income, health status, and health-related behaviors. The analysis was conducted with all demographic variables included and did not show an association between