objectives of health insurance coverage

The first step in identifying and measuring the consequences of not having health insurance and the high rates of uninsured at the community level is to realize that the purposes and sectors that health insurance serves are multiple and distinct. These purposes include promoting health, obtaining health care for individuals and families, and financially protecting individuals from exceptional health care costs. Medical insurance that brings together the risks and resources of a large group of people so that each of them is protected from financially delayed medical expenses due to illness, accident or disability. In addition to fulfilling the typical functions of hazard insurance, health insurance has evolved as a mechanism to finance or prepay for a variety of health benefits, including routine preventive services, the use of which is not infrequent or unexpected. Despite the fact that a large percentage of people who have health insurance file claims against their coverage each year, health care expenses, and therefore health insurance payments, remain concentrated in a relatively small number of applicants, who incur in exorbitant costs for serious illnesses. 10 percent of the population accounts for 70 percent of healthcare spending, a ratio that has been stable for the past three decades. Thus, health insurance continues to serve the risk-sharing function even as funding for routine care increases. From a healthcare provider's perspective, the insurance their patients have helps ensure a stream of income, and communities benefit from financially stable and stable institutions and healthcare professionals.

Employers offer health benefits to attract and retain workers and maintain a productive workforce. The government offers health insurance to residents who may not be served effectively by the private market, such as the disabled and the elderly, and residents whose access to health care is assessed, such as children and pregnant women.

The ultimate goals of health insurance coverage for individuals and communities, including workplace communities for employees and employers, are to improve health outcomes and quality of life. Attributing success in achieving these goals to health insurance alone is challenging because isolating the relative contribution of different determinants of individual and population health requires complex analysis. Over the past quarter of a century, the importance of health insurance has increased, as clinical medicine has become increasingly sophisticated, technological advances have become more common, and the range of curative interventions (and their costs) has grown. rapidly expanded. As a society, we invest heavily in health insurance through out-of-pocket expenses, back wages, and tax policy. Health insurance has evolved in the United States as a common but not universal component of the employment contract. Employees rank health insurance first among all benefits offered in the workplace. Despite the large investments of public and personal funds to provide health insurance, many people still do not have coverage.

Despite extensive reporting on survey results and health care research findings, the general public remains confused and misleading about uninsured Americans and the implications of lack of coverage. This section provides basic information about health insurance and who misses it, in the context of many common myths. There is no doubt that the complexity of health care financing mechanisms in the US and the myriad of information sources add to the confusion and public skepticism about health insurance statistics and their interpretation.