More Than 50 Million Americans Do Not Have Medical Insurance
Posted on Fri, Oct 15, 2010
According to the Census Bureau, 2009 saw the largest number of Americans without insurance...over 50 million. That translates to 1 in 6 Americans that do not have medical insurance.
Private medical insurance companies lost about 6.5 million of their customers, and government funded medical insurance plans rose to 6.6 million, with Medicaid alone leaping to 5.2 million people. This is the highest amount of people ever recorded by the Census Bureau that are covered by a public plan. In fact, 30.6% of Americans are covered by public plans, which is a record high, while 63.9% are covered by a private insurer, which is a record low.
The real decrease was among employer sponsored medical plans, and the major increase was among those covered by Medicaid.
Under the Affordable Care Act, all U.S. citizens will have to carry medical insurance in 2014 or they will be fined. Individual state health plan exchanges will be set up to aid consumers in purchasing individual coverage, in the hopes that it will make the process easier for Americans.
America's Health Insurance Plans has stated that medical costs are hurting the economy and not making it any easier for families and small companies to keep their medical insurance. That has been accentuated by a suffering economy, and as Americans have trouble managing their finances, young and healthy people tend to drop their medical insurance, making the remaining group, or risk pool, unhealthy and older.
Statistics have shown that the amount of children without insurance has stayed about the same...which is about 1 in 10 children, but that number is skewed for poverty stricken children. It was also shown that Americans with higher household incomes are more likely to have medical insurance coverage. However, households that earned at least $75,000 per year also didn't have medical insurance about 9.1% of the time. This statistic has made medical insurance companies fearful that some healthy people may decide to avoid purchasing medical insurance under the new healthcare reform laws, which would leave people that are healthy out of the pool. Right now, America's Health Insurance Plans feels that the penalties that people will face who don't purchase medical insurance in 2014 simply won't be enough of an incentive for them to buy medical insurance.