Description
Today, more than 40 million Americans lack health insurance—increasing their risk of receiving poor-quality health care and of becoming ill. The uninsured in America are less likely to receive necessary diagnostic tests and more likely to forego recommended therapies. For example, uninsured children are less likely to be treated for ear infections than children who have health insurance. Similarly, uninsured women are less likely to undergo regular mammograms to screen for breast cancer, while uninsured men are more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer at a later stage of the disease.



So who are the uninsured? How do they fall between America's private, employer-sponsored health-insurance system and government-sponsored programs such as Medicare and Medicaid? In the third e-seminar in his six-part series, The Politics of Health Care, Michael S. Sparer, associate professor of public health at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, focuses on the plight of the uninsured in the United States. He reveals the current composition of America's uninsured population and examines the health and financial consequences of lacking health insurance. Finally, Professor Sparer reviews previous attempts to aid the uninsured and explores current proposals intended to reduce their ranks.