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Reasons Why People Lack Health Insurance

While millions of people lack health insurance at any given time, 240 million people do have health coverage through a variety of sources. According to the U.S. government, most of the population is covered through personal, work or government programs. The problem with citing numbers for those who don't have health insurance is that many people without coverage might simply be between coverages.

  1. High Cost

    • Health insurance can be very expensive, depending on what type of coverage you need. A Congressional Budget Office (CBO) study published in May 2003 found that among non-elderly adults who did not have health insurance, the high cost of getting insurance was cited as the major concern. Overall, 71 percent of those surveyed cited it as a reason. When the length of the period of not being insured is considered, cost becomes an even a bigger consideration. Those who were without health insurance for four months or less cited cost as an issue 49.4 percent of the time, but if the person had been without insurance for more than a year, nearly all of them (97.5 percent) named cost as a factor.

    Lack of Access at Work

    • Many people don't get insurance because they can't get it at work. This was the reason given by 61.6 percent of the people in the CBO survey. For those who hadn't had insurance for four months or less, it was a reason 43.8 percent of the time. For those without health insurance for more than a year, it was a reason 83.3 percent of the time.

    No Need

    • About 11 percent of the people in the CBO study didn't have health insurance because of choice. They either didn't believe they needed it (9.9 percent) or they don't believe in health insurance (1 percent). For those who have been uninsured for four months or less, 5.4 percent (4.3 percent don't want/1.1 percent don't believe in it) chose not to have health insurance. For those uninsured more than a year, 18.6 percent (17 percent don't want/1.6 percent don't believe in it) didn't want health insurance.

    Other Reasons

    • The CBO study found a few smaller reasons that some people cited as reasons for not having health insurance. Some of those surveyed had been covered under their parents' policies and were no longer eligible for that coverage (6.1 percent). Some have been turned down for coverage because of their own poor health (3.5 percent). It should be noted that these people might also have cited the high cost of health insurance as a reason because they might have been able to get insurance if they were willing to pay for it. Finally, 1.4 percent of those surveyed said they didn't need health insurance because they used a VA hospital for their healthcare needs.

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