Nationally, uninsured adults are nearly four times more likely not to see a doctor when they need to compared with people who have health coverage (41% of uninsured adults versus 9% of insured adults), according to The Coverage Gap: A State-by-State Report on Access to Care released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The uninsured not only miss needed medical care due to cost, but they are also far more likely to miss health screenings to detect cancer in its earliest, most treatable stages. For example, only 23% of uninsured women age 40 to 64 had a mammogram within the past two years compared with 51% of insured women. Consequently, 23% of uninsured adults report being in “poor” or “fair” health in contrast to 12% of adults who have insurance. And despite popular opinion that the uninsured are overwhelmingly young and healthy, the analysis shows that 15% of Americans age 50 to 64 are uninsured.
Although disparities in access between the insured and the uninsured exist in every state, the highest percentage of uninsured people who reported lack of care due to inability to pay lived in West Virginia (57%), Oregon (56%), Kentucky (54%), Washington (48%), and Maryland (47%). States with the best access to care for uninsured adults are North Dakota, Montana, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Massachusetts.
The report was released to kick off Cover the Uninsured Week (May 1-7), a campaign chaired by former presidents Ford and Carter to urge U.S. leaders to make health coverage their top priority. Click here to download the report.
