Uninsured People

The barriers to health care among nonelderly adults by insurance status as of 2016. 

This high rate uninsured people are due to high cost, and unfortunately due to this many people are not able to receive the medication they need. An article in the Henry J Kaiser foundation said, “In 2016, uninsured nonelderly adults were three times as likely as adults with private coverage to say that they postponed or did not get a needed prescription drug due to cost (18% vs. 6%).” (“The Henry J. Kaiser”).

Nevertheless, those that are uninsured do not get all the recommended services for follow up care after the treatment of an injury or chronic disease even if they are on the similar plans with an insured person. (“The Henry J. Kaiser”). However, with the enation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) there hasn’t been so many changes. The goal of this system was also to give those with low income the chance to afford Medical bills. The ACA created an even operation for the government, employers, and individuals, making sure that all Americans have access to affordable and good-quality health insurance. (Dickman, Samuel et al).

Unfortunately, over 27 million Americans are still uninsured even with the gains from the Affordable Care Act. And this number is said to likely increase under the reforms advocated by Republicans. (Dickman, Samuel et al). The insurance policy that was created in the US was created to help reduce expensive health cost but there is still an increase in the number of Americans that cannot afford insurance. This high cost has led to the widening in life expectancy among the wealthy and the poor and if this continues, United States may become a nation which there will be little or no care for the poor and only the wealthy will be able to afford medication which will continue widen the life expectancy of the wealthy to the poor. (Dickman, Samuel et al). Healthcare bills in US has left so many people in debt.

In an article in Lancet, it is said that “One in four non-elderly adults younger than 65 years (and one in three with annual household incomes $3000) and worse health than the overall population are particularly at risk” (Dickman, Samuel et al). These statistics shows how much debt so many young Americans are into because of medical bills in 2015 and one can only imagine how much change has occurred over the past 3 years.

 

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