Groups come together to speak up for uninsured

An organizational partnership tells physicians, the public and lawmakers it's time to find real-world solutions to the problem of the uninsured.

By Joel B. Finkelstein, AMNews staff. March 24/31, 2003.

Washington -- Advocates for the uninsured are in the kitchen, cooking up ideas to expand access to health care. Now they are calling on doctors to come to the table to finalize the menu.

In the past two years, nearly 75 million people have gone without health insurance for a matter of months to years, according to a report released at the launch of the "Covering the Uninsured" initiative earlier this month.

"This is a problem that is much more common than we understood," said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, MD, president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which sponsored the report.

One in three Americans younger than 65 went without insurance for all or part of the past two years.

Nearly four out of five people without health insurance were in working families. And, uninsured patients often forgo or delay care, sometimes putting off going to the doctor until minor illnesses become acute, according to the report. The statistics have serious implications.

"The recent downturn in the economy means even more Americans are finding it difficult to find necessary care, including preventive services," said AMA President Yank D. Coble Jr., MD. "As a result, an already overburdened health care system is forced to bear even higher costs to care for these patients."

Another study showed people who don't have health insurance during any given year receive, on average, half as much care as those with insurance. Research has also demonstrated that people without insurance are sicker and die younger.