Tuesday, 24 January 2012
Study Shows Insured Unemployed People Still Struggling
Even though many Americans have health insurance plans, a lot of them don’t take advantage of them if they’re unemployed because they still find the costs, such as deductibles and co-payments are too high. According to an article in HealthDay News, those without jobs are less likely to use prescription drugs or seek medical care than those who have jobs, even though they’re insured.
A study by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention said that having a private insurance plan didn’t mean a person was receiving good health care. It reported that unemployed people with insurance had worse mental and physical health than those who were employed. It found that many jobless people weren’t using the insurance to the fullest due to the costs they still had to pay.
The Center said having insurance is better than not having it, but people who had coverage and a job were better off. The study used data from a U.S. National Health Interview Survey that was conducted in 2009 and 2010 and it focused on people aged between 18 and 64. The report stated that 48 per cent of jobless adults were insured and 81 per cent of adults who had jobs had coverage with more unemployed people having public insurance compared to the employed.
Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, who is a co-founder at the Physicians for a National Health Program, said she doesn’t believe the new health insurance reform will actually improve the situation. She said there was almost a 20 per cent drop in primary care during the recent recession because people who lost their jobs, but still had insurance, couldn’t afford to take advantage of their health care because of the high costs attached to plans in America.
She said there will be about 23 million people still without a health plan after the reforms are all implemented and that’s a good start, but it’s not going to be much help to some people if they can’t afford to get the medical attention they need. In fact, she said the health reform could make it worse for some people because some of the new policies offered will come with even costlier deductible and co-payments.
