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Promote Access to Care
The number of Americans without health insurance continues to rise – and many states continue to attempt to reduce their Medicaid rolls. NAUH will continue to work to expand access to care for the poor and uninsured, whether through Medicaid, programs like S-CHIIP, or other means.
Studies suggest that there are health consequences associated with lack of health insurance. People without health insurance often do not receive primary health care. When they are sick, they try to avoid seeking care, but if they cannot, they typically turn to hospital emergency rooms – perhaps the most expensive, least appropriate form of care – for help. The uninsured do not receive appropriate follow-up for their medical problems and allow their chronic conditions to go untreated. Pregnant women give birth to unhealthy babies, developmental problems in infants and young children go undiagnosed, and minor medical problems become chronic, major medical problems. People with these problems eventually find their way into the health care system, but when they do, the cost of caring for them is far greater than it would have been had they had access to ongoing, quality health care.
Ensuring access to basic health care would serve two major purposes: it would improve the health, and therefore the quality of life, of millions of Americans; and it would prevent minor, routine, and chronic medical problems from becoming major health care crises that cost the American health care system hundreds of millions of dollars a year in potentially avoidable costs – avoidable costs that are borne disproportionately by urban safety-net hospitals.
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