Medically Uninsured

            
             Health Insurance first originated in the industrialized nations of Europe. It later appeared in the United States in the early 20th century and spread through employers who were trying to attract workers with this benefit. Health insurance was designed to protect workers from large cost of medical care and gave them a reason to pursue low-cost preventive services that would keep them healthy enough to be able to work. In 1965, the government introduced Medicare and Medicaid to extend coverage to the elderly and to some of the poor. However, the United States remains the only industrialized nation without universal health insurance coverage [1/816]. There are between 41 million [4/375] and 41.2 million [6/30] people in the United States with no medical insurance. According to Penn State health economist Pamela Farley Short, not all 41 to 41.2 million are chronologically uninsured. Middle-class Americans lose their health coverage in an economic downturn and get it back when the economy goes back up. She also states that 80 million Americans are uninsured over any given two-year period, but only 23.5 million are uninsured for the entire period [6/30].
             There are many assumptions of who the uninsured are. For example, many assume the uninsured are unemployed. In fact, about 85 percent of the uninsured come from working families [6/30]. Data from the census bureau shows that the likelihood of having medical insurance rose with income. Of the households with income of less than $25,000, 76.6 percent had health insurance. For those with income of $75,000 and more, 92.3 percent had health insurance [5/1].
             The group of uninsured people in America can be divided into subgroups by age, race, and sex. The largest age group of the uninsured was from 18 - 24 years, consisting of 55 percent of the total people uninsured under the age of 65. Moreover, 25 percent were from the age of 25 - 29 years.