Access to healthcare in the US is a human right considering its pivotal role in the economic development agenda. In spite of this reality, the US still lags behind in the provision of quality and affordable healthcare services due to inadequate or no insurance coverage. This proposition is true especially when one considers the over 51 million Americans who live in rural and far-flung areas. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation (2018), almost 28 million Americans do not healthcare insurance something that derails the efforts to enhance healthcare delivery.
Statistics related to inadequate or lack of healthcare insurance
There have been numerous efforts by the policymakers to reduce the number of Americans without healthcare insurance. Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been one of these efforts where the health insurance coverage was extended to low-income individuals through marketplace subsidies. As a result of this insurance program, the number of Americans lacking insurance cover dropped to 27 million in 2016 from 44 million in 2013. Galvin (2019) establishes that 87 million Americans may not have access to quality healthcare as they are underinsured as they reinsured by skimpy health plans or lack insurance coverage. These statistics translate to a decline in the quality of healthcare services for the vulnerable and minority groups.
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What can be done to enhance the uptake of health insurance
The high cost of health coverage continues to the primary reason behind the escalating number of uninsured Americans. This lack of insurance has several economic and health implications both for the government and the population. In this case, lack of insurance means that the individuals have to spend more money on healthcare expense as they have to fund their treatment out of their pockets (Flores et al, 2017). For this reason, the concerned stakeholders and policymakers ought to bring down the cost of healthcare insurance through the increment of ACA’s minimum coverage level (Collins, Bhupal and Doty, 2019). Technically there is a need to come up with lower insurance packages to cater to low-income individuals right from the local levels. As an administrator, I would liaise with the local policymakers to establish the population demographics to come up with custom made healthcare insurance packages.
References
Collins, S. R., Bhupal, H. K., & Doty, M. M. (2019). Health insurance coverage eight years after the ACA: Fewer uninsured Americans and shorter coverage gaps, but more underinsured. The Commonwealth Fund.
Flores, G., Lin, H., Walker, C., Lee, M., Currie, J. M., Allgeyer, R., … Massey, K. (2017). The health and healthcare impact of providing insurance coverage to uninsured children: A prospective observational study. BMC public health , 17(1), 553.
Galvin, G. (2019). 87M Adults Were Uninsured or Underinsured in 2018, Survey Says. US News. Retrieved on 04 May 2019 from https://www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities/articles/2019-02-07/lack-of-health-insurance-coverage-leads-people-to-avoid-seeking-care
Kaiser Family Foundation. (2018). Key Facts about the Uninsured Population. Retrieved on 04 May 2019 from https://www.kff.org/uninsured/fact-sheet/key-facts-about-the-uninsured-population/
