Uninsured

The uninsured are defined as people who are under 65 years of age and have no health insurance, and are not on Medicaid, for all or part of the year. People 65 and older have Medicare and are therefore, not included in the definition. The uninsured are typically the working poor with one-third earning less than $20,000 per year and two-thirds earning less than $40,000 per year. For someone employed and offered health insurance by their employer, the cost of the employee contribution, deductibles and co-payments could easily be more than $4,000 per year for a family of 4. This would be about 25% of their gross salary, if they earn $20,000 per year, which is at the designated "poverty level" according to the federal government. If they had to purchase health insurance independently, the average premium is greater than $10,000 per year, not including the other costs of deductibles and co-payments. This would be 50% of their gross income if they earned $20,000 per year or 25% of their gross income for $40,000 per year, which is the average income for the nation. These amounts are impossible for the working poor to pay. It is for this reason that there are so many uninsured in the US.

Things to consider:

The 48 million uninsured consumed about $137 billion of healthcare in 2005 and received poor care. They missed medications, testing, and office visits as a consequence of no insurance for all or part of the year.
The uninsured used the emergency rooms for their care and had more advanced illnesses requiring more complex and costly hospitalizations.
A study shows that 40% of their care was paid for by public and private insurance coverage for part of the year.
25% was paid out-of-pocket.
35% was "uncompensated" by direct payments to providers (hospitals and physicians), but was paid by governmental institutions.

The "uncompensated" portion was paid for by enhanced Medicare and Medicaid payments to hospitals, "charity care" payments by state governments, state and local expenditures for public clinics, and $29 billion from higher premiums for private health insurance as a result of hospitals negotiating enhanced payments to offset losses.

Uninsured Population Expenditures	$ billions
Public/private insurance	49
out of pocket	31
"Excess" private insurance payments	29
Indirect govt/charity payments	14
Indigent clinics	7
Uncompensated physician expenses	7
Total actual expenditure	137

The uninsured are more likely to forgo preventive care.
13,000 deaths per year are attributed to being uninsured in the 55-64 year old age group.
Lack of private health insurance is the third leading cause of death behind heart disease and cancer in the 55-64 year old age group.