BYU NewsNet - Johnson Foundation Raises Awareness of Uninsured Citizens

With more than 47 million Americans uninsured, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation hopes Cover the Uninsured Week this week raises public awareness about the need for affordable and reliable health care coverage.

Of those uninsured, 9 million are children, according to U.S. Census Bureau information. This is more than 15 percent of the total U.S. population. The Utah Department of Health reported that an estimated 287,000 Utah residents are uninsured, including 77,000 children that totals about 15 percent of the state population.

Alan Pruhs, associate director of the Association for Utah Community Health, said, "I think it's a great week, and we want to continue and honor the week until everyone is insured."

Though the week is over Saturday, a health fair Tuesday will feature more information about the uninsured as well as various health-related exams and screenings. The event is sponsored by several community groups, 4:30-7 p.m. at the Utah County Health and Justice building, 151 S. University Ave., Provo. The CHIP van will also be onsite to help those who qualify to sign up for the Children's Health Insurance Program or Medicaid. Childhood immunizations will be offered for $5 per shot.

The association is the primary care association for Utah. Its goal is to support and represent medically underserved residents across the state. Community Health Centers has 11 groups with 28 delivery sites across Utah affiliated with the association. These centers serve just fewer than 100,000 Utahns annually, and 92 percent of these are at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level while 61 percent are uninsured. At Mountainlands center in Provo, 73 percent of the patients are uninsured. "CHCs are spread throughout the state, but not in every area of need," Pruhs said, noting that the association is working with the state to establish more health centers in the areas of greatest needs.

"Anything that promotes the uninsured is a good thing," said Janet Frank, spokeswoman for Intermountain Healthcare in Utah County. "Any event we can get involved in and get people to start talking and thinking about becoming insured is good."

Utah Valley Regional Medical Center works in cooperation with the association and Mountainlands Community Health Center to help provide health care services to those who are uninsured in the area. Intermountain gave $14,900,227, helping 10,704 individuals with financial assistance in 2007 between the three hospitals in Utah County (UVRMC, American Fork Hospital and Orem Community Hospital), including both uninsured individuals and under-insured individuals.

At UVRMC, the emergency room sees the most uninsured patients, which is the case with many hospitals nationwide. "Our Emergency Department sees many people uninsured people because that is one place they know they can go to receive care," Frank explained.

The Institute of Medicine reported the following conclusions about being uninsured:

Compared to people with insurance, uninsured children and adults experience worse health and die sooner.

Families can suffer emotionally and financially when even a single member is uninsured.

Uninsurance at the community level is associated with financial instability for health care providers and institutions, reduced hospital services and capacity, and significant cuts in public health programs, which may diminish access to certain types of care for all residents, even those who have coverage.

The nation as a whole is economically disadvantaged as a result of the poorer health and premature death of uninsured Americans.

The institute also reports that the value of covering the uninsured measured primarily in terms of better health and longer life is between $65 billion-$130 billion annually.

For more information about Cover the Uninsured Week, see www.covertheuninsured.org.