Who Are the Uninsured?

When you’re waiting in line at the bank, the grocery store, or the gas station, check out the other people in line. In a line of ten people, at least one of them lives without something that many perceive as a fundamental necessity. Health insurance. The National Coalition on Health Care reports over 47 million uninsured Americans, a whopping 16 percent.

But look a little further. Look at the gender. Around 40 percent of low income women are uninsured: minorities, teenagers, single moms. And 20 percent of uninsured Americans are pregnant. Nearly half of the pregnant uninsured work full time and another 28 percent work part time. They’re productive, contributing, tax paying members of the work force. However, low income women tend to have jobs that don’t provide insurance. Society tells them to work; work tells them to pay for their own insurance.

Because programs like Medicaid have wage limits, many pregnant women are ineligible to receive free care, yet most low income women can’t afford to buy insurance on their own. That leaves forty percent of young women, between the ages of 18 and 29 uninsured. What’s bothersome is that The Center for Disease Control reports that half of all babies are born to women in this age group. That’s a lot of babies who are receiving inadequate prenatal care because their moms can’t afford it.

But don’t let statistics depersonalize these women. Go stand in line anywhere and ask yourself “Who are the uninsured?”

They’re standing right next to you.

Fighting for the uninsured and underinsured pregnant moms and their unborn babies.
Advocate Aaron