In our role as Gerontology researchers who research financial health and health as we age, we’ve examined how a person’s connections to the health care system develop or fall apart based on the insurance coverage they have. What we’ve discovered is straightforward: staying close to your trusted physician ensures your health and helps the system save in the long run. The break in that link can do the opposite.
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What causes people to be uninsured?
A person could get rid of their insurance coverage for various reasons. For a lot of Americans, insurance coverage is tied to work. Resigning, being fired before reaching the age of 65, and being eligible for the Medicare program, or even starting the job you want, could mean the loss of insurance.
Other people end up not being insured due to a range of factors that include moving to another state, getting divorced, or leaving an insurance plan run by parents at the age of 26.
Those who purchase insurance on their own may discover that they cannot pay the cost of costs. In 2024, the average cost for individual insurance topped 600 each month, for a lot of adults, despite subsidies.
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Insurance programs that are sponsored by the government could expose you to this situation. It will make cuts and adjustments to Medicaid. If the rules in the House bill pass the thousands of Americans who have health insurance under Medicaid which is a health insurance program that is jointly administered through the Federal government as well as the states and designed especially for people with handicaps or low incomes could be denied health insurance coverage, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.
Medicaid was first established in the early 1960s, says the scholar who studies the program’s past.
The consequences of not being insured
Health insurance is more than just a means to pay for medical expenses and is a way to the health care system. It connects individuals to medical professionals who get to learn about the medical histories of their patients, medication and personal situation.
If that door is shut, it will have a direct impact on the person who closes it. Uninsured people are far less likely to have a typical source of care, which is usually a doctor or a different primary care provider, or a clinic that you know and have confidence in.
The relationship you have with them is the basis for managing chronic illnesses by keeping up to date in preventive screenings and receiving assistance when new symptoms develop.
Researchers have discovered that those who are uninsured for just six months are inclined to put off medical treatment or avoid it completely to save costs. People who had insurance coverage, especially those of middle age, saw big improvements in their health.
The research process involves analyzing the results
In research that examined the data we collected between 2014 and 2020, we examined the progress of 12,000 adults aged 50 and older who lived in the United States.
Our research team examined how their experiences changed after they lost, and often then regained, a routine care provider throughout those six years.
A large portion of people who participated in the study suffered from numerous chronic illnesses like hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease.
The outcomes were striking
People who didn’t visit the same doctor regularly were much less likely to be listened to or valued by health experts. They saw fewer doctors and filled out fewer prescriptions. They also weren’t as likely to comply with recommended treatments.
Their health also declined significantly over six years. Blood cholesterol and sugar levels climbed, and they also had high indicators of kidney disease compared with those with regular medical care.
The longer they were without regular health care, the more severe the clinical markers deteriorated.
Warning signs
The care offered includes screenings, such as blood pressure and cholesterol checks, mammograms, PAP smears, and prostate tests, along with regular vaccinations. However, most people receive preventive treatment when they remain connected to the health system.
This is more likely if you have solid and complete healthcare insurance.
Our research team also looked into the impact of preventive care depending on whether or not the patients were regular patients. We found that people who were seeing the same doctor were about 3 times as likely to receive essential preventive services as compared to those who didn’t.
In time, missed opportunities for preventive treatment can become a major issue.
As an example, consider an older man who does not receive cholesterol screenings because he has lost insurance. Over time, an undiagnosed high cholesterol level can lead to a heart attack, which could have been avoided with early treatment. A woman who doesn’t attend mammograms due to out-of-pocket expenses, but then is faced with an advanced-stage cancer diagnosis that could have been discovered many years ago.
Cost shifting
Patients whose illnesses aren’t quickly identified aren’t the ones to are liable for the costs.
We also looked into the impact of stable relationships on the amount of healthcare spending. For this purpose, we linked Medicare claims costs with our previous study and analyzed the medical costs of the same individuals aged 50 and over from 2014 to 2020. One of our most important results is that those with regular healthcare doctors were 38 percent less likely to incur higher-than-average medical expenses.
The savings aren’t just for patients. They ripple across the entire health system. The stability of primary care reduces the cost for both private and public health insurance providers and, ultimately, the taxpayers.
However, when people lose their health insurance coverage, those savings go away.
Emergency rooms are crowded with patients without insurance who seek treatment that could have been dealt with earlier and cheaper at a doctor’s office. Although hospitals are legally obliged to provide emergency medical care regardless of the patient’s ability to pay, the majority of the expenses are not reimbursed.
Hospitals pay for around two-thirds of these losses. They then pass the remaining third onto private insurance firms by increasing charges for hospital services. The insurers then raise the prices for their customers. More taxpayer-funded subsidies could be needed to keep hospitals operating.
Looking at Medicaid as a source of life
For the more than 80 million Americans who are in Medicaid, the program offers more than just coverage.
It helps to ensure the stability of health care, which Our research suggests that it is crucial for a healthy lifestyle. Medicaid allows many Americans who suffer from serious medical conditions to see a doctor regularly and routine preventive care and have someone they can go to when symptoms develop regardless of lower incomes. Medicaid helps to stop medical care from becoming emergency-driven.
As Congress looks at the possibility of cutting Medicaid funds by billions, and we think lawmakers must realize that cutting back coverage would destroy the fragile bonds between millions of patients as well as the healthcare professionals who have the best knowledge of them.
