As Individual Health Insurance Costs Go Up, the Ranks of the Underinsured Do TooJune 2008
In the last 10 years, as costs for
individual health insurance go up, we've seen the number of uninsured Americans rise to more than 48 million. But now, there's another group of struggling Americans living one step away from medical debt: the underinsured.
The underinsured are those who have medical insurance, but don't have enough to protect them in the event of a major illness or accident. Numbers for the underinsured vary, but conservative estimates are for about 25 million people.
And even at that smaller estimate we're seeing a 60% increase in the number of underinsured citizens in the last 4 years.
Those hardest hit by this particular phenomenon are those who don't qualify for subsidized medical insurance programs, but don't make enough money to purchase more comprehensive individual health insurance. This would include families who don't get very good coverage - or any coverage at all - from their place of work, including those whose income was 200% above the federal poverty level, or those with an income of more than $40,000 a year.
While these people pay for their
medical insurance all year long, high deductibles, out-of-pocket costs, and co-pays can leave them financially devastated after a sudden illness or accident.
Those who are underinsured behave remarkably like the uninsured: they tend to go without needed health care, like seeing a doctor when sick or filling needed prescriptions.
Facts on:
Underinsured Medical Insurance
Did you know...
Since mandatory medical insurance became the law, the number of uninsured state residents in Massachusetts has gone down by more than half?
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Worse yet, there are potentially millions more Americans who are underinsured right now, and just don't know it yet.
Until prices for private coverage go down, those who are forced to purchase individual health insurance will still run the risk of incurring devastating medical debt, even if they don't see it coming.
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