The Consequences of Being Uninsured - Essay Example

The Consequences of Being Uninsured" is a decent example of a paper on social and family issues.
Most of the young adults are not insured; a significant part of them is between ages 19 and 29. The number of uninsured was about 13.7 million in 2008. This was approximately 17% of the entire population. This means that, for every 10 uninsured individuals, three of them are between 19 and 29 years (Collins & Nicholson, 2010). Among individuals who lack insurance, the adults below 65 are poorly represented. Last year, the number of uninsured adults of age below 65 was about 45 million, which was about 18% of the entire population (Hoffman, 2009).

Five problems caused by the lack of health care.

The lack of health care leads to the late detection of chronic diseases since a person fails to go to regular checkups due to the absence of insurance. Secondly, the lack of health care leads to an increase in annual deaths due to the late diagnosis. Thirdly, it leads to hospitalizations, which can be prevented through preventive care. This increases the government expenses. In addition, lack of health care causes poor health leading to low production at the workplace. Indeed, lack of healthcare leads to poor health conditions; among the unhealthy, the uninsured prevail.

Which minority group is at the greatest risk of being uninsured?

The minority group of individuals who are at great risk of not being insured is the children from low-income families. This is because children from such families cannot afford the covers. Additionally, children do not get sick as frequently as adults do; therefore, they are likely to be left out (Hoffman, 2009).

Discuss consequences of being uninsured

One of the consequences of being uninsured is the lack of preventive care, which leads to late diagnosis (Hoffman, 2009). An example of the preventive care practices is the mammogram for women. The insured individuals are likely to go for mammograms frequently compared to the uninsured ones. Hence, the uninsured realize they have cancer are at a very late stage, and this makes the treatment process intricate. Additionally, many people die prematurely because of the lack of insurance, which makes it easier to access preventive care.

Attributable to the late diagnosis, the uninsured are likely to develop disabilities compared to the insured. Moreover, the lack of insurance contributes to the escalation of the mortality rate. It can result in a high number of hospitalized individuals who are not covered go to the hospitals when they are critically sick. If such individuals had insurance, they would access healthcare in time. Such hospitalization of individuals, when they are very sick, can result in overburdening of the emergency rooms (Hoffman, 2009).

Furthermore, being uninsured leads to an increase in medical costs for both the insured and the uninsured people (Hoffman, 2009). As for the uninsured, they usually pay their personal money for the medicines. Relying on such sources to buy medicine can be very expensive compared to when an individual is insured. Additionally, because of the uninsured, the insured may have to pay more money for cover (Hoffman, 2009).

The top three strategies listed on the Kaiser survey to cover the uninsured

One of the strategies that will enable the uninsured to receive cover is making the coverage available through new pathways. The second way is to offer financial assistance to the uninsured in order to make it affordable. This will be done by making alterations in the tax system and direct subsidizations. The third way entails altering the ways of regulating the insurance care market (Shartzer, 2008).

Have any changes in our current government administration addressed any of these areas?

As a means of reducing the number of uninsured, the government has made some alterations in the insurance market. For instance, laws have been passed to augment the age of dependency, and more people can be insured due to this. Interestingly, young adults will be insured under their families (Collins & Nicholson, 2010).