Living in a coverage gap
Their stories differ, but people without health insurance share the uncertainty of what will happen if they get sick.
The self-employed painter
Daniel Luna, 55, has been trying to manage his diabetes despite having no health insurance. After his diagnosis several years ago, he worked to improve his diet. "You have to learn things you would never pay attention to," he says. He worked in his family's bakery growing up and used to eat foods high in sugar and carbohydrates, but now, "French fries are a no-no." Sometimes he skips buying the medication he needs to control his diabetes because it costs $200 for a month's supply. Luna's painting contracting work has been scarce during the recession. Nearly 29 million people earning less than $50,000 were uninsured in 2008.
The physician without a practice
Pierrette Mimi Poinsett, MD, 51, closed her pediatric practice in 2006 for financial reasons. She's had several jobs since then -- medical and otherwise, including at a coffee shop. But caring for her 12-year-old, who has bipolar disease and no insurance, has been her primary occupation. "I've pretty much been his advocate for the last three years." Dr. Poinsett, of Petaluma, Calif., was among the 12.3 million uninsured people in the U.S. in 2008 who live in the West. And although she would love to practice medicine again, "I'm not able to work the full 40 hours a week plus calls."
The young adult willing to go without
Keith Cross, 30, doesn't see how restaurant workers can afford health insurance. "I mean, you're working for tips," he says. More than half of the uninsured people in the U.S. in 2008 were younger than 35. Cross prefers to go without coverage and self-treat less-serious illnesses. In September he developed a bad cold with a fever, which he treated with penicillin he bought in Mexico. Two hundred pills cost $5. "It's not worth it to have health insurance unless you have a family," he says. "A single person -- it's not even worth it."
The uninsurable retiree
Paul Gerhold, 62, is willing to pay up to $600 a month for health insurance "for the peace of mind," but health plans won't cover his ulcerative colitis. What really bothers him is that hospitals and physicians charge one price to insurance companies and another, much higher price to individuals with no coverage. When he needed surgery he went to India, where three procedures cost $30,000. In 2008, 11.4 million uninsured people in the U.S. in 2008 were in Gerhold's age demographic, 45 to 64. But he doesn't hold a grudge. "I wouldn't really insure myself either."