Only in America--health status and whether or not one is insured

[eridani]

United States Census Bureau
Health Status, Health Insurance, and Medical Services Utilization: 2010
http://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p70-133.pdf

There is a U-shaped relationship between health status and having any type of health insurance coverage. Among all people who reported excellent health, 85.0 percent were insured. For those who reported good health, 80.2percent had health insurance coverage. Finally, 85.1 percent of people who reported poor health also had health insurance coverage.

This U-shaped relationship for the overall insurance rate is partially attributable to trends in the type of health insurance coverage. For example, 15.7 percent of people with excellent health reported having only public insurance, compared with 44.7 percent of people with poor health. On the other hand, the percentage of people with excellent health who had private health insurance was 69.3 percent, compared with 40.4 percent of people in poor health.

Comment by Don McCanne of PHNP: This seemingly mundane observation from this Census Bureau report provides great insight into the problems with health care financing in the United States.

It is astonishing that a country that spends so much on health care would have a U-shaped curve, or any curve for that matter, on the relationship between health status and whether or not one is insured.

Considering our financing system, the curve is easy to understand. People in excellent health also tend to have favorable socioeconomic circumstances that would result in higher enrollment in private insurance plans. Likewise, people in poor health tend to have less favorable socioeconomic circumstances that would result in higher enrollment in public insurance programs. People in good health would fall in between and thus would lie in the trough of the U-shaped curve, with lower rates of insurance than those well off and those benefiting from government programs.

If we had a decent health care financing system, wouldn't those in good health be as well covered as those in excellent health and those with public programs? More importantly, shouldn't either end of the U-shaped curve reach 100 percent coverage? And wouldn't the trough be wiped out so everyone with good health were covered as well?

The Affordable Care Act might shift the entire curve up as more are covered, but the 30 million who will remain uninsured will perpetuate the bizarre U-shape of the curve. We need a flat line, at the top, with 100 percent coverage. That's everyone, like we would have in an improved Medicare for all.