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Lack of Health Insurance
Places Entire Families at Risk, if just one member of a family does
not have health insurance, it adversely affects the health,
emotional well-being, and financial stability of the entire
household.
Lack of insurance can seriously strain families' financial
stability, the committee found. Families with no members insured for
a year are more than twice as likely as families with full coverage
to incur medical expenses that exceed 10 percent of their income.
Most uninsured families cannot afford to buy coverage independently.
Children in particular are affected by lack of insurance because
they rely on their parents or guardians to obtain both coverage and
health care for them. The negative experiences of uninsured parents
in obtaining care for themselves may affect their willingness to
take their children for checkups or enroll them in public insurance
plans.
Studies demonstrate that uninsured parents delay seeking care for
themselves and their uninsured children until the symptoms are more
severe. These delays may result in unnecessary hospitalizations for
preventable or readily treatable conditions.
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