Uninsured Americans

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Recommended: The role of U.S. healthcare

Today uninsured Americans make up approximately 4.2 million people. Because these families cannot afford the high cost of insurance, they do not get the health care needed to maintain good health. They must live with the pain and worry of the problem and when they do get medical care, they assume huge debts and another worry of how to pay for it. The United States is the only modern industrialized country with out a sound health care system. Since 1999, one in six, not including the elderly, went without health care coverage for the entire year. More males went without coverage then females. Those most likely to be covered were those who were elderly and under the age of 18. Even Canada has a system where every one in the country has some type of health care coverage. Don?t expect the situation to go away any time soon. The Republicans and the Democrats are more concerned with paying down the national debt that getting health care coverage for those who need it. So any coverage that a family does have is from the employer if they work. Employment insurance in most companies is for the employee only. The employee then has to have money taken out of their paycheck to cover their family members. Depending on the number of family members to be covered depends on how much money will be taken out of the paycheck. Unless we work for a prestigious company and make lots of money the money taken out of our paychecks shorten the amount we take home to live on. So the employee may have insurance but their spouse may not. This is a problem when the spouse cannot work. Another situation is when the employer does not offer any insurance to their employees. The employee is then part of the millions who do not have health care insurance and cannot afford to pay for it. The people who do not have the coverage are those who are too poor to afford it. Many working parents who fall into the lower class are the greatest group of people who cannot afford insurance. Another factor of the uninsured Americans are those who have a lower level of education. Generally, the better educated the person the better chance they are to have a good job that covers them and their family.

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