New Kentucky Voices for Health Issue Brief

Sep 3rd, 2009

Expanding health coverage would reduce $1 billion cost of caring for uninsured

Expanding health coverage to the estimated 604,000 Kentuckians without health insurance would substantially reduce or eliminate the more than $1 billion in annual costs that all Kentuckians must pay as a result of care provided to the uninsured for which no payment is received.

That is one of the conclusions of Expanding Health Coverage in Kentucky: Why It Matters, an issue brief released today by Kentucky Voices for Health. (Download a full copy of the issue brief here.)

According to the brief, the approximately 15 percent of Kentucky’s population who have no health coverage are older, poorer, and more likely to work part-time than the average American who is uninsured. Of all uninsured Kentuckians:

** almost half (48%) are between the ages of 35 and 64;

** about 75% have incomes below 200% of the poverty level ($44,100 annual income for a family of four);

** more than 80% live in homes where one or more family member works.

The brief also outlined survey results reported in 2006 that demonstrate the problems experienced by Kentuckians, both with and without health coverage, in obtaining health care due to the cost:

** Kentuckians without health insurance are more than three times more likely to skip needed medical care when sick than insured Kentuckians.

** More than half a million Kentuckians with health insurance skipped going to a doctor or seeking a medical treatment when sick, and almost 600,000 did not fill a prescription because of the cost.

** More than half of uninsured Kentuckians did not fill a prescription for medicine.

** More than 40 percent of uninsured Kentuckians did not see a specialist when needed.

** Almost one-third of the uninsured reported using all or most of their savings to pay medical bills in the previous year.

The issue brief also points to Kentucky research that concluded that the benefit of providing care to the uninsured (measured in terms of reduced uncompensated care, reduced out-of-pocket spending, and losses associated with poor health, a lower quality of life and high death rates) is greater than the cost of providing coverage. In 2006, the Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center estimated that benefit exceeds the cost by between $254 million and $871 million annually (in 2004 dollars).

With health reform on center stage in Washington, Kentucky Voices for Health released the issue brief to “inform the public debate with Kentucky-specific facts that are not widely known” and to make clear why expanding health coverage matters to Kentucky.

“There is a good deal of inaccurate information being put forward in the public discussion on federal health reform, so we thought it important to provide the public with reliable Kentucky-specific information,” said Kentucky Voices for Health Co-Chair Rich Seckel. “With the emotion surrounding this issue, it is easy to forget the real problems of families and working Kentuckians who are struggling with health costs.”

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