 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Uninsured more likely to skip care
©Associated Press WASHINGTON -- People who lack health insurance for even a short time have considerable trouble paying bills and are likely to skip needed care, a survey finds. A survey by the Commonwealth Fund found one in four working-age Americans was without health insurance at some point in the past year. That translates to 38.4-million people between ages 19 and 64. Researchers say the survey was conducted between April and July, before the economic downturn. Since then, hundreds of thousands of Americans have lost jobs and, often, health insurance benefits. The survey showed that 44 percent of those who were uninsured at some point during the past year, but not at the time of the survey, said they had trouble paying a bill. Thirty-one percent of them said they had to change their way of life, mostly spending most or all of their savings, to pay medical bills. Similar problems face those who were without health insurance at the time of the survey. About 75 percent of this group had been uninsured for at least a year. Half of the total group had problems paying a bill and 27 percent said they changed their way of life to pay for medical care. Both groups had trouble getting the care they needed. Among those uninsured at the time of the survey, 55 percent experienced at least one of four problems accessing care: not seeing a doctor when sick, not filling a prescription, skipping recommended medical treatment or tests or not seeing a specialist because of the cost. Of those who had been uninsured at some point during the year, 52 percent had at least one of those four problems. Among those with health insurance, it was just 21 percent. The Commonwealth Fund, a New York health research company, said not all workers are eligible for COBRA. COBRA allows people who leave jobs at companies that employ 20 or more workers to continue receiving health insurance from their former employer if they pay 102 percent of the premium cost. But about one in four workers may be ineligible for COBRA because they work for a small company or because they never had insurance to begin with. And many of those who would be eligible for the program could not afford the premiums, the report said. The telephone survey of 2,829 people age 19 to 64 was conducted between April 27 and July 29. It had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times Business report
From the AP
|
