Uninsured_Medicaid

Uninsured In today’s health care world there is a multitude of topics that one can discuss when concerning health care policies. I have chosen to introduce the idea of uninsured individuals as stakeholders when it comes to the Medicaid health policy. First let we shall examine what Medicaid is and what benefits it has to offer individuals. “Medicaid is the nation's major public health insurance program for low-income Americans, financing health and long-term care services for over 52 million people, including children and many of the sickest and poorest in our nation” (kaiserEDU.org, p. 1). Medicaid offers health insurance to children under the age of 19, adults with children under the age of 19, whom are below poverty level $22,000 a year for a family of 4; however does not offer health care coverage to individuals that have little to know income if they do not have children meeting the age criteria. According to Rachel Garfield, PhD. there are 49.1 million individuals who are uninsured; with eight million of these people are children. I am one of these statistics, I cannot afford to pay for health care coverage and because my children do not live with me, I am not able to get coverage from Medicaid, even though I am far below the “poverty level” when it comes to my income. Rachel also suggested that between 2001 and 2011 the annual cost of health care for a family of four is $15, 073 with an increase of over 113% in this time period. With the increase of costs and regulations of policies, how is it possible for the individuals who cannot afford health care to get coverage' Medical costs increase at an alarming rate, individuals that do not have coverage will soon find themselves with bill collectors, trying to gain payment for an emergency room visit. Throughout the next five weeks I plan to investigate the policies and procedure the government and Medicaid have in order to help the individuals that just do not qualify for Medicaid. References MEDICAID/SCHIP KaiserEDU.org http://www.kaiseredu.org/Topics/Medicaid_SCHIP.aspx Overview of the Uninsured Rachel Garfield, PhD http://www.kaiseredu.org/Tutorials-and-Presentations/Overview-of-the-Uninsured.aspx