'Underinsured' May be the Next Healthcare Crisis

"The financial health insecurity that comes from being underinsured is substantial and puts people's health and well-being at risk," says The Commonwealth Fund President David Blumenthal, MD. High-deductible health insurance plans have been touted as a means to expand coverage to millions of people who otherwise could not afford it.

New reports out this month suggest that high-deductible non-group plans are not a silver bullet, however, and that while the premiums may be affordable, the costs of accessing care remains prohibitively high.

A survey released this week by The Commonwealth Fund found that 31 million adults ages 19–64 with health coverage were "underinsured" in 2014, and that oftentimes these underinsured people skimped on care because it was too expensive.

"The financial health insecurity that comes from being underinsured is substantial and puts people's health and well-being at risk," The Commonwealth Fund President David Blumenthal, MD, said at a news conference Tuesday. "If health insurance costs continue to be shifted to consumers this insecurity will deepen."

Sara Collins, the lead author of study, and vice president, Health Care Coverage and Access at The Commonwealth Fund, says "underinsured" status considers an insured adult's out-of-pocket costs during a year of coverage and the plan deductible. Premiums are not factored…...To Read More.....