No health insurance
45 Million people have no health insurance in the United States. And the number of people with no health insurance has been steadily growing in the last decade.
Many people are without health insurance because they either can't afford the high premiums, or because they are self employed and need to save money, or because they are unemployed.
Every day hundreds of new people are left with no health insurance. Every day more working people are uninsured: nationwide, the number of working uninsured adults has increased by more than 6 million in the last decade. Currently, nearly one in five working adults is uninsured.
To add to the burden, workers' insurance costs have risen far faster than incomes. The average cost of an individual insurance policy has increased 61 percent in the last decade.
Nationwide, the amount that employees have to pay for an individual policy has increased 79 percent, while during the same period, wages in the U.S increased just 10 percent.
This leaves a large number of people without the ability to pay for needed surgical procedures which seriously affects their quality of life. An ACL tear or a damaged meniscus can prevent a young 35 year old patient from enjoying favorite activities. Likewise a damaged hip can seriously affect the mobility and quality of life for a 70 year old patient.
Much needed surgery often goes unperformed because of no health insurance.
20 percent of the US population has no health insurance. Nationwide, the percentage of nonelderly people who have private insurance has dropped from 73 percent to 67 percent.