tailieunhanh - Survey of People Who Purchase Their Own Insurance

Medicaid and the S-CHIP provide coverage to certain low-income populations that meet eligibility requirements. The programs play a particularly important role for children, aiming to cover nearly all low-income uninsured children. The role of Medicaid for adults is far more limited however, covering only some low-income parents and disabled individuals, leaving most childless adults ineligible, regardless of how poor they are. Recent growth in Medicaid and S-CHIP enrollment of children has filled in the sizable gap created by decreased employer-sponsored insurance since 2000. The share of children who are uninsured actually decreased between 2000 and 2004,. | THE HENRY J. KAISER FAMILY FOUNDATION Survey Report Kaiser Family Foundation Survey of People Who Purchase Their Own Insurance June 2010 Kaiser Family Foundation Survey of People Who Purchase Their Own Insurance Introduction Individual or non-group health insurance covers about 14 million nonelderly people in America making it the least common source of health insurance. In contrast about 157 million nonelderly people are covered by employer-sponsored Yet recent reports of steep premium increases have attracted attention to the circumstances of people who buy insurance on their own. And in the vast majority of states the nongroup market is subject to substantially less regulation than group insurance with insurers permitted to exclude people or impose rate surcharges based on pre-existing health conditions. Much will change under the new health reform law - including a requirement that insurers accept everyone regardless of health status a prohibition on health status rating and creation of purchasing Exchanges - but the major elements of the law do not take effect until 2014. There is a limited amount of information available on the costs and benefits of individual health insurance. What evidence is available suggests that despite lower premiums individuals with non-group coverage generally pay a higher share of their health expenses out of pocket than those with employer-sponsored coverage indicating less comprehensive Market surveys - from America s Health Insurance Plans and - report average premium and deductible levels in non-group plans but the data are not nationally representative and do not describe enrollee In an effort to obtain more information on people purchasing individual insurance the Kaiser Family Foundation conducted a nationally representative survey of 1 038 individuals with non-group coverage from late March through early April Among the types of questions we sought to answer .