Reinsuring Health: Why More Middle-Class People Are Uninsured and What Government Can Do

Preface

Preface Since the mid-1970s, the federal government has conducted nationally representative surveys of the U.S. population to learn more about those who do not have health insurance. Twenty-five years ago two-thirds of the uninsured lived in poverty or had incomes just above the poverty level, and two-fifths were children. For policymakers determined to reduce the number of uninsured, the message was clear: expand Medicaid and create programs aimed at children. The country made progress in both of these directions—but to the consternation of many, the number of uninsured continued to rise. As of January 2006, the U.S. had 45.5 million uninsured people. Among these are almost 14 million middleclass people; being uninsured is an increasingly common problem for middle-class adults. The growth in the number of middle-class people among the uninsured requires us to take a new look at the reasons why people are uninsured . It also requires that, in addition to programs targeted at the poor and near-poor, we develop new policies to provide incentives for insurers to make health insurance more widely available. These are the subjects of this book. ...