Discuss the differences between uninsured and underinsured and how it affects the individual, the community, and the health care system as a whole. Provide an example to illustrate your position and be sure to support your answer with appropriate resources.
Uninsured vs. Underinsured The ability for someone to pay for health insurance and then find a health care provider with a corresponding facility for care that is culturally sensitive when applicable are just a couple of components of health care access. Additionally, the capacity for the care to appropriate and given in a timely manner in the language that is best suited for the patient are also components to health care access (Bodenheimer & Grumbach, 2012). The …show more content…
Let’s say you are an uninsured young adult working a minimum wage job and you develop what you believe to be a common cold. Your symptoms are steady, but then you develop a high fever and decide you have to get into the emergency room to be seen. Upon being worked up you’re diagnosed with pneumonia and your lab work is really ugly, now you’re being admitted into the intensive care unit with sepsis, needless to say, now you won’t be working or going home this week. You lose your minimum wage job; you’re finally discharged weeks later because you acquired secondary infections from the hospital while admitted. Then here comes the bill. Bodenheimer and Grumbach (2012) explain that uninsured individuals often suffer worse health outcomes than those who have health insurance, and their mortality rates are higher overall as well. According to Nardin et al. (2013), “the latest estimate from the Congressional Budget Office, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will leave 31 million Americans without insurance in 2023, about 5 million more than would have remained uninsured if the ACA’s Medicaid expansion had not been made voluntary” (as cited in Rao & Hellander,