Hidden Costs, Value Lost Uninsurance in America (2003) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
1. Introduction
1. Introduction
Pages 12-19
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From page 12... ...
In this report, the Committee presents aggregate estimates in monetary terms of · the costs of health care provided to those who lack health insurance that are borne both by uninsured individuals and their families and by the public and private programs and providers that subsidize uncompensated care and donate services; · the value of additional years of healthier life that would be gained by those without health insurance in the United States if health insurance coverage were extended to everyone; and · the cost of the additional health care that would be provided to the uninsured if they gained health insurance.
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From page 13... ...
Understanding who eventually pays for the health care that uninsured people receive and the economic value lost as a consequence of not receiving adequate care are important to evaluating alternatives for expanding coverage. CONTEXT This report is the fifth in a series of studies that constitute a systematic assessment of the ramifications of failing to include millions of people each year in the predominant organizational form and financing mechanisms for health care services in the United States, private and public health insurance.
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From page 14... ...
premature deaths annually that can reasonably be attributed to the lack of coverage and the less adequate health care received as a result (IOM, 2002a)
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From page 15... ...
This report breaks new ground in the analysis of how uninsured populations affect the quality and accessibility of health services within communities generally, and the overall character of communities in terms of health, social cohesiveness, and economic vitality. The Committee concludes in A Shared Destiny that high levels of uninsurance within communities disrupt local systems of public health and personal health care and adversely affect the availability and quality of services within the community.
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From page 16... ...
population. By estimating the resources now devoted to health care for 41 million uninsured Americans.
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From page 17... ...
In addition to presenting quantitative and qualitative information about some of the costs that follow from uninsurance, the Committee reviews several sets of estimates of the costs of providing the additional health care that the uninsured would use once they became insured. This review of the additional costs of providing the benefits of coverage that would reduce morbidity and premature mortality among the uninsured is an essential part of the consideration of the economic and ethical choices to be made concerning universal health insurance coverage.
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From page 18... ...
The Committee documented these losses in Care Without Coverage and Health Insurance Is a Family Matter. Questions about the equity of access to medical interventions for all members of society regardless of health insurance status have become more urgent as coverage affords access to increasingly effective services (IOM, 2003c)
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From page 19... ...
The second section considers the financial risks and other stresses that individuals and families bear when they lack coverage. The remaining four sections discuss in qualitative terms · impaired developmental outcomes for children, · the demands placed on Medicare, disability income support, and other public programs, · workplace productivity and labor force participation, in particular from the employer's standpoint, and · effects on the availability and quality of health care and on public health.
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