A NEW STUDY by the Commonwealth Fund reveals two out of five working-age Americans with incomes between $20,000 and $40,000 a year were uninsured for at least part of the past year.
Lower-income adults remain the most likely to be uninsured. The vast majority of the uninsured are in working families and, of the estimated 48 million working-age uninsured Americans, 67 percent were in families where at least one person was working full time.
The study found many adults wrestle with medical-induced debt. Twenty-one percent of adults, both insured and uninsured, have medical debt they are paying off over time and 34 percent either had medical bill problems in the past year or were paying off accrued medical debt. The survey of adults, ages 19 to 64, revealed medical debt is not solely an issue for the uninsured. Sixty-two percent of adults with medical bills or debt problems said they or a family member were insured when they incurred the debt.
The survey looked at medical consequences families face when they go without health care coverage. Researchers found a high proportion - 59 percent - of adults with a time uninsured in the past year with chronic
illnesses, such as diabetes and asthma, went without or skipped their medications because they couldn't afford them. The same group was also more likely to go to an emergency room or hospital for chronic conditions than those with insurance. Thirty-five percent of uninsured adults with chronic conditions visited an ER, or stayed in the hospital overnight - or did both - compared to 16 percent of those insured all year with a chronic condition.
