WHY FINANCIAL PROTECTION?
Inadequate financial protection in health increases vulnerability, undermines well-being, and exacerbates inequities. It inhibits access to high quality, medically necessary, and medically appropriate care. Unmet health needs can result in poorer health outcomes, illness-related direct and indirect costs, and even irreversible disability and death.
Individuals and households without health insurance are more likely to skip necessary treatments and less likely to be admitted to a hospital and receive a regular source of health care. Those who are uninsured that face high health care costs may also self-insure, drain savings, sell assets, and more. All of this can diminish current flourishing, weaken future prospects, and lead to impoverishment. In this way, health care quality and access erroneously depend on ability to pay. Wealthier individuals tend to receive more comprehensive coverage, whereas poorer individuals often fail to receive or obtain coverage that meets their health needs.
Millions of Americans are currently uninsured, and at least half of the world’s population cannot obtain essential health services. Low-income women are at a greater risk of being uninsured, and LGBTQ+ individuals are twice as likely to be uninsured than the general population in the United States. Economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic significantly increases the risk of about half of the U.S. population losing their employment-based health insurance.
Indeed, lack of insurance, underinsurance, self-insurance, informal insurance, and discontinuous insurance all provide insufficient protection and disproportionately impact underserved, marginalized, and disadvantaged populations. They are all barriers to receiving high-quality, medically necessary, and medically appropriate care.