Search results matching tag 'health care'

Cause of death? Lack of insurance

Karen Datko — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:59:00 GMT

A new Harvard study estimates that nearly 45,000 Americans die each year because they don't have health insurance -- and that's after other factors like income and unhealthy behaviors are taken into account.

"Deaths associated with lack of health insurance now exceed those caused by many common killers such as kidney disease," an article by the Cambridge Health Alliance reports.

The study says the uninsured have a 40% higher risk of death than people who have private health insurance -- like the insurance you get through your job. Or, to put it another way, a person dies because of a lack of insurance every 12 minutes.

Of course, some people neglect their health. But many, we suspect, don't see a doctor because they're afraid of the cost. Doctor visits and tests can add up to an intimidating amount, even if you're uninsured but have a good income. A CNN story put a human face on some of these avoidable deaths -- a freelance cameraman, a self-employed mother of two, and a 25-year-old woman who worked in a movie theater.

So we had to wonder: Have you put off visits to the doctor because of financial considerations?

Overall, 15.4% of Americans don't have health insurance. The study breaks it down state by state, (.pdf file). For example:

In Texas, where just under 30% of people lacked insurance in 2005, annual deaths attributed to being uninsured was 4,675.
Here in Montana, the percentage of uninsured was 19.4%, and 147 people paid the ultimate price.
In Florida, where 26% were uninsured, the death toll attributed to lack of insurance was 3,925.

Also consider that the number of deaths blamed on lack of insurance is 2.5 times higher than it was in 2002, due to several factors. The study found that:

More people are uninsured. The U.S. Census said 46.3 million people were uninsured last year -- and since then millions of people have lost jobs.
The safety net for the uninsured has larger holes, as nonprofit hospitals and clinics have closed.
The quality of care for those with insurance has improved. "We doctors have many new ways to prevent deaths from hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease -- but only if patients can get into our offices and afford their medications," Dr. Andrew Wilper, lead author of the study, said.

"We're losing more Americans every day because of inaction ... than drunk driving and homicide combined," Dr. David Himmelstein, a co-author of the study, told Reuters. Himmelstein and his wife, study co-author Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, founded Physicians for a National Health Program.

Related reading:

A survival guide for the uninsured

It's not health care reform unless ...

How to fix health care

Look abroad for cheaper health care

Seniors racking up credit card debt

Karen Datko — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 20:10:00 GMT

Here's a statistic that should give us all pause: The average credit card debt of seniors grew by 26% between 2005 and 2008, CreditCards.com reports. For the rest of us, the increase was a comparatively modest 3%.

Also, CreditCards.com says: "According to a study (.pdf file) released in July 2009 by New York City-based Demos, a public policy group, consumers 65 and older carried $10,235 in average card debt last year." That is a lot.

And that's very troubling, considering that so many retirees are living on Social Security and no other savings, and face considerable medical expenses despite government-run Medicare. The dreaded "doughnut hole" is just a drop in the bucket compared with the other potential health care-related demands on their money.

Bing: Do you have to pay your parents' debt?

What's happening here?

The CreditCards.com post gives few clues but offers lots of solutions -- and they're good ones. We figure several factors are at work.

Many older folks are stretched thin. That's true in better times, but now, because retirement savings for lots of people have shrunk, they're turning to credit in a pinch. (Our partner site ConsumerAffairs.com pointed out that many older people are now delaying retirement big time.) For some real-life stories, and this is from August 2007, read "Is Grandpa drowning in debt?"
Medical expenses are a burden. The Demos study says, "Older households, those 65 and over, reported the highest amount of credit card debt due to medical expenses: $3,988."
They're victimized. Consider how vulnerable people who didn't grow up in the computer age are to phishing and other forms of identity theft. Scammers love seniors. And then there's all the "free" stuff that's advertised as a way for unscrupulous companies to start billing your credit card.

What to do? Be on the lookout for signs that seniors you know are struggling. Yes, this is difficult. If you don't have a close relationship that allows discussion of such things, you're going to have to be very observant.

Are your parents suddenly living beyond their means?
Are their bills piling up on the kitchen table -- unopened?
Are they using a credit card to purchase things they used to pay for with cash, like groceries?

How to proceed? If you can have a frank, respectful discussion, do so. If the topic would be unwelcome, enlist help from other family members or friends, CreditCards.com suggests.

For more help, read "How to handle Mom and Dad's finances."

Related reading:

How to get rid of your folks' stuff

Will you end up supporting your parents?

Help seniors hang up on telemarketing scams

Get rebates on prescription drugs

Teresa Mears — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:35:00 GMT

When I recently needed an antibiotic eye ointment that costs $50 for a five-day supply (with insurance), I started looking for a discount. There was no generic. I managed to find a CVS coupon for a $25 gift card with a new prescription, but it had expired last month. The cheaper alternatives listed on my insurance company's website contained an ingredient to which I'm allergic, and my doctor didn't have any samples.

I went looking on the Internet, but all I could find was a $25 gift card coupon from CVS for transferred prescriptions.

But I did find something else useful: rebates for prescription medications.

The makers of many prescription drugs offer substantial rebates. Several Web sites, including Internet Drug Coupons and Optimizer RX, provide links to coupons and rebate forms for both prescription drugs and over-the-counter drugs. Savings range from $1 off Bayer Aspirin to $100 for CellCept, an anti-rejection drug used after organ transplants. There are coupons for diabetes supplies, contact lens supplies and pet medications, too.

Some drug companies provide substantial discounts if you sign up on their Web sites, another good place to check for deals. For example, AstraZeneca, maker of Nexium, has a program in which it provides up to $50 per month for a year toward its product.

Manufacturers regularly offer printable coupons, free trials and co-payment reductions on many brand-name medications, notes Flash at the Grocery Coupon Guide, in a post on saving money on prescription medications. Flash notes that while these offers used to primarily for new medications, the economy has led companies to provide regular savings on many medications. The Grocery Coupon Guide lists many offers on its Rx prescription coupon page.

Also, look for offers in magazines, at the pharmacy and at your doctor's office. Once you redeem a prescription coupon, the manufacturer will generally provide another coupon or rebate voucher by mail, Flash reports.

I didn't find any way to save on my $50 eye ointment, but at least it seems to be working quickly. I did find a rebate form for $10 on prescription eye drops if my free sample from the doctor runs out. I even found a coupon for a free vial of flea prevention medication for the cats, which is worth about $12.

Get prescription drugs for less

13 ways to save on prescriptions

Free flu shots for jobless, coupon for all

Teresa Mears — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 17:22:00 GMT

It's not comprehensive health care reform, but CVS is offering 100,000 free flu shots to the unemployed, and Walgreens will offer free flu shots to the uninsured in some cities.

CVS started giving flu shots this week at some Minute Clinics, at a cost of $30 or your insurance co-pay. Starting Sept 15, the drugstore chain will offer flu shot clinics at many of its stores. The vouchers for free flu shots will be distributed at events at One-Stop Career Centers, which offer job training and counseling.

Walgreens is distributing vouchers for free flu shots to the uninsured during the AARP/Walgreens Wellness Tour, which offers free screenings for blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, bone density and body mass index. Uninsured patients who visit the bus between Sept.17 and Nov. 15 can get a flu slot voucher. Flu shots start at $24.99 at Walgreens Take Care Clinics.

Walgreens is offering free treatment for minor ailments to the unemployed and uninsured through 2009, but only to those who visited one of its clinics before being laid off.

You might investigate other places to get a free or low-cost flu shot, including through your employer or your local health department. Medicare Part B pays for flu shots.

These flu shots cover only the regular flu and are being made available earlier than usual this year nationwide. Most places started providing flu shots this week. Vaccinations against the H1N1 flu won't be ready until mid-October.

Seasonal flu shots are $30 at Rite-Aid. You'll need to check with your local Wal-Mart or Little Clinic for prices.

While you're checking out the flu shot clinic schedule at the CVS Web site, take the quiz about prescription refills and get a printable coupon for $5 off any $25 in-store purchase. The coupon is good for two weeks after you print it. If you talk to your pharmacist about automatic refills, you can get a booklet with $25 in coupons.

Your 5-minute guide to health insurance

5 places to find medical care for the uninsured

Discount back-to-school, sports physicals

Teresa Mears — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:30:00 GMT

If you still need to schedule a back-to-school or sports physical for your child, Walgreens Take Care Clinics are offering the exams for $30, half-price, until Sept. 30. The deal is only good for patients who pay upfront rather than submitting the claim to an insurance company.

Target Clinics in Maryland and Minnesota are offering the same deal, as are the CVS Minute Clinics, where $30 seems to be the regular price for sports physicals. Sports physicals at The Little Clinic, available at some grocery chains, are $29, also the regular price.

Prices at Wal-Mart clinics vary, so it's worth a call to your local clinic to find out the price in your area. Also check with local urgent care centers. While we were researching this post, an ad popped up with a coupon for a $25 sports or school physical (normally $65) in the next county.

These walk-in clinics can be a good resource for people without insurance or for people who have a minor ailment and can't get a timely appointment to see their regular doctor.

Leah Ingram at Suddenly Frugal offers some tips for getting the required physicals and forms for children to go back to school or play sports. Her doctor will fill out forms for free if it's part of an office visit, but charges $25 to $40 to fill them out at a separate time, meaning that coordinating visits with required forms saves money.

The late Dr. Stephen Parker of Web MD's Healthy Children blog offered some pros and cons on taking your children to retail clinics. Zrinka Peters of Education.com talks about back-to-school health issues, including providing a link to immunization requirements in all 50 states provided by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Web MD also has an article on what a sports physical should include.

If you're looking for vaccinations, the retail walk-in clinics may not be the best deal. Check first with your county health department. Many offer required vaccinations for free. Some health departments and large hospitals also host free health screenings and vaccination clinics.

Related reading:

A survival guide for the uninsured

Your 5-minute guide to health insurance

How will Wal-Mart clinics affect health care?

Doctors ask for more money up front

Teresa Mears — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 21:49:00 GMT

Until recently, you didn't need to bring a lot of money when you visited the doctor, at least if you had health insurance. That is changing, The Wall Street Journal reports. More doctors are demanding your full co-pay and co-insurance amount up front, which can be hundreds or thousands of dollars under some high-deductible plans.

Insurance policies with increased co-pays and deductibles are making the patient responsible for a larger share of medical bills. In turns, doctors and hospitals, which used to focus on getting their fees from insurance companies, are also focusing on collecting from their patients.

"The days of coming up with just a $10 co-pay -- that ship sailed a long time ago," Jeff Drasnin, a pediatrician in the Cincinnati area, told The Wall Street Journal. Collecting at time of service has "cut out a tremendous amount of bad debt we used to write off," he says.

The Journal reports that when doctors send bills later, they recover only about half of what they're owed, and only 10 to 20 percent if patients don't have insurance.

Many self-employed people pick policies with higher deductibles to save on premiums. Employer-sponsored plans are also raising the employees' share of costs. According to a report from the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation, half of employees enrolled in PPOs in 2008 had deductibles of at least $1,000.

Even people with good health insurance are putting off doctors' appointments and skimping on prescriptions because they can't afford the increasing costs of copayments and deductibles, The Boston Globe reported.

The formulas by which patients often end up with bills for $12.42 several months after a doctor visit are complex. To bill patients on the spot, doctors are taking advantage of electronic services that figure out the patient's share of the cost before he is even treated. Then they ask for that amount up front.

Like all electronic services, this one isn't always accurate. The Journal quoted a patient who was billed $70 for an eye exam when his responsibility was only $25. Rather than refund the excess payment, the optometrist held on to it as a credit against a future visit, until the patient asked for a refund.

The Journal story offers this advice:

Before you visit a doctor, ask about billing policies. Also ask your insurer about its rules.
Ask how the office staff came up with the amount they want you to pay.
When the explanation of benefits comes or is posted online, check it carefully against what you're charged and ask for a refund if you were charged too much.

Related reading:

Negotiating your medical bills

Protect yourself from medical billing mistakes

How to survive your hospital bills

HMOs beat PPOs in new survey

Karen Datko — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 20:12:00 GMT

This post comes from James Limbach at partner site ConsumerAffairs.com.

With the battle over health care reform likely to last well into the fall, a new survey suggests that a lot of consumers are ready for some changes.

People who took part in the latest Consumer Reports survey say median annual out-of-pocket costs for premiums increased by 38% in the past two years, and only 64% of those surveyed were "very" or "completely" satisfied with their current health insurance plan.

"That's a lukewarm response and a slight drop from the 67% in our 2007 report," said Mandy Walker, senior project editor for CR. "In terms of services we rate, that puts satisfaction with health insurance above satisfaction with cable TV, a perennial whipping post, but below pharmacies and real estate agents."

Eighty-four percent of the 37,481 magazine subscribers who reported their experiences over the course of a year were in an employer-based plan, which they could keep under most health reform proposals now before Congress.

Annual out-of-pocket costs for plan premiums were up 38% from two years ago for both those in health-maintenance organizations and preferred-provider organizations. Respondents to the survey conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center reported a median premium cost of $1,829, an increase of about $500 since 2006.

The survey results also indicate that choosing an HMO over a PPO seems like a smarter choice than in the past. While overall satisfaction scores were similar, respondents in HMOs paid less for premiums than people in PPOs ($1,466 compared with $2,003) and less out-of-pocket on their medical bills. Among PPO members who were seriously ill, 69% paid $1,000 or more on bills, while only 47% of seriously ill people in HMOs spent that much.

In the past, HMO members who were seriously ill had more trouble getting access to care, but this time there was little difference: Of HMO members who were ill, 15% had problems getting care, compared with 14% of PPO members.

Problems with service

People in PPOs had more trouble with their bills. Overall, 24% of people in PPOs had a billing problem, while just 11% of HMO members had similar issues. Moreover, 33% of PPO members who reported having a serious illness had billing problems versus just 14% of seriously ill HMO patients.

Twenty percent of PPO members also said they had trouble with telephone customer support and were more likely to contact the plan several times to get a problem solved, versus 12% of those in HMOs.

For the first time, Consumer Reports asked subscribers about using plan Web sites to seek information, forms, and customer support. HMOs came out on top again, and had top-notch scores for ease of navigation, easy access to forms, and online help.

Rating the plans

Respondents' experiences with their health insurance were far better if they were enrolled in plans at the top of CR's ranking. Only 4% of respondents had problems getting the care they needed in higher-rated plans.

Eighteen percent of those surveyed said they had trouble getting to see a plan doctor at some point during the year. Among users of some lower-rated plans, as many as 16% complained it was either difficult or impossible to get needed care.

Among HMOs, Group Health Cooperative and Health Alliance Plan topped the list and were also in the top 10 in the 2006 survey. Members of these plans reported fewer problems getting the care they needed, and HAP members were more satisfied with their choice of doctors and the care they received.

Rounding out the top rated for HMOs were several Kaiser Permanente plans around the country, Preferred Care, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, and Independent Health.

At the bottom of the HMO list, Oxford Health Plan and Aetna Health HMO members gave the plans lower ratings for choice of providers. Oxford members also reported more problems getting the care they needed, while Aetna plan members reported more problems getting access to doctors.

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Connecticut was among the top-rated PPOs, as it has been in past surveys. Members remain very pleased with their providers and care they received. Other top-rated plans include Blue Cross and Blue Shield (Alabama, Illinois and Massachusetts), Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield (New York), and Independence Blue Cross (Pennsylvania). GHI (Group Health Inc.), Great-West Healthcare and Health Net members rated choice of doctors in those plans worse than other PPOs.

How to choose

Picking the right plan depends on many factors, including health conditions, whether specific doctors participate in a plan, and what the employer offers:

Try an HMO if cost is key. Compare coverage costs from the past 12 months with the total possible cost of monthly premiums, deductibles, co-pays or co-insurance, and prescription costs of other available plans.
Not willing to switch doctors? For consumers who want to continue seeing providers who are not members of an available HMO, a PPO plan might be better. The HMO might pay very little, if anything, for nonplan providers.
Check Consumers Reports' ratings.
Get a report card. For plans not in CR's ratings, check out NCQA's Web site. The site, which is partially funded by the insurance industry, provides report cards on 55 PPOs and 404 HMOs.
Consider health issues. Patients with chronic conditions may run into shortcomings in either kind of health plan. Look for one with disease-management programs for specific conditions.
Check complaints. Call your state's department of insurance to see whether current members have logged complaints against the plan.
Plan ahead for changes. For example, if having children is in your plan, keep that in mind when selecting a plan; look for one that pays for prenatal care and well-baby visits.

Related reading at ConsumerAffairs.com:

Study claims health insurance market fails consumers

Antidepressant use increasing in the U.S.

Job cuts rise following 15-month low

Don't rush to the doctor while on vacation

Teresa Mears — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 20:13:00 GMT

We often plan ahead for health issues when we travel to exotic places, but we don't think about what we'd do if we needed health care while visiting Grandma two states away.

Lesley Alderman of The New York Times, who jammed her toe tripping over a tree root at Disneyland, reminds us that getting sick or hurt can really cut into your vacation budget, especially if you don't follow your insurance company's rules. Getting treatment for a minor injury out of network can cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars.

She advises travelers to carry their insurance cards with them and to call the insurance company before seeking treatment. The company can tell you which doctors and hospitals are part of the network in the place you're visiting.

When your policy says the insurance company pays 70 percent of out-of-network charges, that doesn't mean 70 percent of what the doctor charges you. That means 70 percent of what the company would pay an in-network doctor, which is usually heavily discounted from the doctor's regular fee.

For example, the broken toe we suffered last week (and we weren't even on vacation) cost us $235.20 to have X-rayed and put back into place at a doctor's office, even though the total amount billed was $812. (If we had previously met the deductible, it would have been only $50.) If this had been an out-of-network visit, we would have been liable for 70% of the $812 if we had met our deductible and the whole $812 if we hadn't. The bill for treating a broken toe at an emergency room or urgent care center would have been much higher.

If you do have to be treated out of network, try to negotiate a lower fee. Doctors and hospitals will negotiate.

Alderman also advises carrying a list of all the medicines you take. She also suggests knowing the risks of where you're going and being prepared. Does the area have tics that cause Lyme disease? Bring tweezers to pluck them out.

From our vantage point in the subtropics, we will remind you that any time you are going to be outside, especially near water, you will need sunscreen, reapplied every few hours. Your base tan from gardening in Missouri will not protect you. Trust us. We learned the hard way.

Alderman, by the way, was able to treat her toe for nothing. She called the insurance company help line and talked to a nurse who said it probably wasn't broken and recommended ice and ibuprofen. That did the trick. Even if you're not vacationing, don't overlook that source of free advice before you seek medical care.

Negotiating your medical bills

How to save thousands on your medical bills

Protect yourself from medical billing mistakes

No health insurance? Not good

Karen Datko — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 20:08:00 GMT

In recognition of the national debate over health care reform, which is about to move front and center, here are two brief histories of bloggers without health insurance.

One is about David, who decided to go without. The other is the story of Leanne at Mrs. Bankrupt, who recently penned a three-part series called "Sick? No insurance. No doctor. You're screwed."

We'll start with David at Goliath Debt, David Income, who was so focused on paying down his colossal debt that he skimped when he shouldn't have -- his wife and his newborn baby aren't insured and it's proven to be quite costly.

First, there were complications during the delivery. "To make matters worse, my wife had an eclamptic seizure on Monday afternoon, something that happens in only rare cases after the birth," he said in a post called "I gambled, and I lost. Big time." "An ambulance ride, three additional nights in the hospital, and thousands of dollars later, I arrive at the end of this week not really knowing where to go from here."

The hospital presented two options for paying the bill. "They said I could either put it on a credit card, and they would give me a discount (about 70%), or they could allow me to send in whatever I could, but it would be for the full amount, and at 18% interest," he wrote. The discounted amount is on his credit card, at 15% interest. Doctors' bills aren't included.

Leanne was undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatments for a Stage 3 cancer 10 years ago when her husband's business went bust and her health insurance went with it. The marriage failed, the medical bills piled up and she eventually wound up in bankruptcy court.

At the time, she said, "Nearly all the unenlightened told me about the ‘can't-turn-you-down' program my state offered. Based on two kinds of cancer, two life-threatening blood clots, and a latent heart problem, my ‘can't-turn-you-down' premium (would have been) $774 a month AND covered NO preventative care (like the very scans I needed to track any reoccurrences)."

With five kids to feed and limited child support, she simply couldn't afford it.

She's still without health insurance, and the bills are mounting again. "Being uninsured for a healthy person is, I am sure, difficult. Being uninsured for a person who needs 10K a year in scans, blood work, thyroid medicine, and has a low immune system is beyond difficult," she wrote.

David's decision not to insure his family did not go unnoticed in the personal-finance blogosphere.

"He took a gamble without health insurance and is now going to pay through the nose," wrote "LAL" at Living Almost Large. "... I am guessing they are in their 20s, great health, never see the doctor, had an uneventful pregnancy and figured, what could happen?"

"Dog" at Dog Ate My Finances also read David's story. She knew that when she became unemployed, she needed to be insured but faced a complicated decision. She had the choice of an expensive COBRA (the family income is too high for her to qualify for the federal subsidy) or individual health insurance that would exclude her asthma.

She wrote: "I could really use some help here. I feel like I have no idea what I am doing in the wild west of individual health care plans. The fact that I even have to make this choice -- $1,200/month for COBRA, or $200/month with no asthma coverage -- pretty much makes me want to cry." Readers offered lots of advice. You can read about the outcome here.

Related reading:

America's health insurance crisis

Study: 60% of bankruptcies caused by health care costs

Buy your own health plan

10 things your hospital won't tell you

Study faults individual health insurance

Karen Datko — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 21:33:00 GMT

This post comes from partner site ConsumerAffairs.com.

One objective of health care legislation pushed by President Obama is universal coverage -- providing health insurance options for all Americans. The question, of course, is how to do it.

Backers of the so-called government option, in which a Medicare-like policy competes with private insurers, can point to a new study by The Commonwealth Fund. The study found that 73% of people who tried to buy insurance on their own in the last three years did not purchase a policy, primarily because premiums were too high.

In addition, among adults with individual coverage or those who tried to buy coverage in the past three years:

57% said it was very difficult or impossible to find coverage they could afford.
47% said it was very difficult or impossible to find a plan with the coverage they needed.
36% were denied coverage or charged more because of a pre-existing condition, or the condition was excluded from their coverage.

The report, "Failure to Protect: Why the Individual Insurance Market Is Not a Viable Option for Most U.S. Families," compared the experiences of working-age adults with individual and employer-based private health insurance and found that people who have purchased health insurance in the individual market spend far more out-of-pocket and on premiums than those with employer-based coverage.

In fact, half of those with individual insurance have out-of-pocket costs and premium expenses that equal 10% or more of their income. People with individual coverage do not have premium contributions from employers, and many are charged higher premiums because of their health status or age. According to the report, 64% of adults with individual insurance spend $3,000 or more per year on premiums, while only 20% of those with employer insurance spend that much. On average, adults with employer plans spend $2,250 out-of-pocket for health expenses including premiums, while those with individual insurance spend an average of $6,750.

"In our current system, millions of people without access to employer coverage have no affordable option for health insurance," said Commonwealth Fund president Karen Davis. "To achieve a health care system that works for all Americans, we need health care reform that offers comprehensive, affordable health insurance to everyone regardless of their health status, premium subsidies to help families with low and moderate incomes afford health insurance, and requirements to ensure that no one is denied health insurance because of a health problem."

Experiences in the individual market

The Commonwealth Fund says those who are able to purchase individual health insurance are more likely to face a host of problems with their insurance, including going without prescription drug coverage, limits on the total dollar amount their insurance will pay for health care, doctors charging more than insurance will pay and being forced to pay the difference, and expensive bills that their insurance will not cover.

In addition, 41% of individually insured adults reported forgoing needed health care because of costs -- up from 24% in 2001. More than one-third of those with individual coverage (36%) also reported medical bill or debt problems, a substantial increase over the 28% who also reported medical bill or debt problems in 2005.

"People buying their own health insurance are paying significantly more in premiums than those with employer-based coverage, but are getting less for their money in terms of protection against high costs and access to the health care they need," said study co-author and Commonwealth Fund vice president Sara Collins. "It is critical that health reform proposals set minimum benefit standards and provide adequate premium subsidies to ensure that families who lose their job-based benefits can purchase affordable coverage that gives them access to timely care and protects them from catastrophic health care costs."

The large majority of Americans who have individual coverage are unemployed, self-employed, or employed by firms with fewer than 20 workers -- one-third are unemployed, and 50% are self-employed or employed by small firms.

People with individual insurance also tend to be older, with the majority between the ages of 50 and 64, according to the report. Families with low and moderate incomes have the hardest time affording insurance on the individual market: 85% of those at or below 200% of the federal poverty level who sought an individual health insurance plan did not end up purchasing one, and of that group, 67% cited cost as the reason they didn't purchase a plan.

Related reading at ConsumerAffairs.com:

Chase continues to tighten consumer credit

Emerson College to reimburse students over loan advice

Texas curbs acai berry supplement maker