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More people lack continuous health care coverage; delay needed exams
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An increasing number of people in the United States are without health insurance coverage — independent of income levels — resulting in increased levels of forgone health care, according to recently published government report. This increase in forgone health care may result in an increase in complications due to illnesses and subsequently an increase in long-term expenditures.
Researchers discovered this trend by examining data from the National Health Interview Survey for 2006 to 2009 and early release data from the first quarter of 2010. They looked at both people with no health insurance coverage and those with gaps in coverage, and assessed if this lack of insurance resulted in increased levels of forgone health care.
The researchers found that in 2009 about 58.7 million people, or 19.5% of people of all ages, had no health insurance for at least part of the year preceding their NHIS interview. Of this group, 82.8% were people aged 18 to 64 years. In the first quarter of 2010, the number of people of all ages without health insurance for at least part of the prior year increased by 0.7%, to 59.1 million people.
Twenty-six percent of all people aged 18 to 64 years had no health insurance for at least part of the previous year, and 16% had no insurance for more than a year.
Among people aged 18 to 64 years with family incomes two to three times the poverty level, 32% of people had a gap in health insurance in the previous year; among those with incomes three to four times the poverty level, 21% had a gap.
The researchers found that in 2009, those people aged 18 to 64 years who had no health insurance for the previous year were seven times more likely to forgo needed health care treatment due to cost (27.6% vs. 4%) compared with those with continuous coverage.
“This report indicates that an increasing proportion of persons aged 18 to 64 years in the United States lack health insurance, even for brief periods, and that gaps in insurance coverage are associated with delaying or forgoing health care, irrespective of family income level,” the researchers wrote. “Approximately 40% of persons in the United States have one or more chronic diseases, and continuity in the health care they receive is essential to prevent complications, avoidable long-term expenditures and premature mortality.”
For more information:
- CDC. MMWR. 2010;59:1448-1454.
If early detection is important in malignancy outcomes, we should be exercised by these data.
- Harry S. Jacob, MD, FRCPath(Hon)
HemOnc Today Chief Medical Editor