The growing ranks of the underinsured
In addition to the 47 million Americans with no health insurance, the ranks of those considered underinsured are growing at an alarming rate.
A new study by the Commonwealth Fund has found that the number of Americans with inadequate health insurance coverage mushroomed from 16 million in 2003 to 25 million in 2007.
That's a jump of 56 percent in just four years.
"Underinsured" is defined this way:
Respondents were identified as underinsured if they spent 10 percent of more of their income (or 5 percent if they were low-income) on out-of-pocket medical expenses, or if they had deductibles that equaled 5 percent or more of their income.
As the study notes (the PDF is here), the underinsured are likely to forgo needed care, wait until health problems become much more serious before seeking treatment, and let prescriptions go unfilled, all due to escalating out-of-pocket costs. The study also notes that over the period from 2000 to 2007, average health insurance premiums jumped 91 percent, but wages only increased by 24 percent.
Employers are becoming more likely to drop health insurance coverage for their workers due to escalating costs, leaving individuals to fend for themselves. Individual health insurance policies are unaffordable for the vast majority of Americans, so those who do manage to carry some kind of individual policy end up with high deductibles, outlandish premiums, and onerous terms on the rare occasions when claims are actually paid.
In this situation, no one wins except the vultures in the for-profit health insurance industry.
Unfortunately, neither of the two major presidential candidates offers anything close to the significant health care reforms this country needs. McCain is recycling the nonsensical right-wing canard of tax breaks to purchase health insurance, which would amount to either a pittance or nothing for most American workers. Obama's milquetoast approach would do almost nothing to reduce the ranks of the uninsured, and, like McCain, Obama seems perfectly willing to ignore the underinsured.
Regardless of who wins the White House in November, the mushrooming health care crisis will not be meaningfully addressed anytime soon. The underinsured will get the shaft in 2009, just like they're getting the shaft today.
"Change"? What change?