Workers Without Health Insurance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Workers Without Health Insurance - Essay Example It will finally draw a conclusive recommendation on how workers can be provided with medical covers to enhance their heath care service provision. The primary source of health insurance covers in the United States is the employer-sponsored insurance -ESI1. ESI offers job-based health benefits which are in some cases subsidized by the federal government by exempting employer tax on health insurance premiums. In certain companies there are private employer sponsored which are voluntary and depends on the company's financial ability to meet the health care requirement for its entire workforce. Since not all employers offer insurance covers to its employees, not all workers have insurance policies and consequently, their children and spouses do not have them. In most cases, people who are not insured are either workers or family members of the workers. Previous research has shown that most American citizens obtain their health insurances through their employment agencies. However, some working environments do not find it economically possible to offer health insurance services to its workers. These working environments include; those who earn low wages, short job tenures, working part-time or those with low incomes2. In 2003, the Kaiser commission of inquiry reported that of the 124 million workers who were uninsured, 80% of them were self employed and this can be explained by the fact that these group of people do not get access to group insurance which is somehow cheaper. Another group of uninsured workers who formed the remaining percentage were workers with non-working spouses. Causes of medical disenfranchisement People become medically disenfranchised because they lack proper medical insurance cover that they can depend on whenever they are not feeling well. Poor health care in America today has been blamed on lack of worker insurance policies and programs leading to high costs of medical services. As many people continue to work as casuals and part-time jobs, in addition to low wages and salaries, they are not able to meet the medical requirements needed not only by themselves but also by their families. This has led to increased number of people who operate without medical and insurance covers for a better part of their lives. In fact, research has shown that three out five working Americans are not covered with insurance covers. This trend has in the past sparked a lot of condemnation from all quarters especially from government critics. Pressure is therefore building on employers to ensure that all its employees are insured. However, with increased incidences of political unwillingness, societal diversity and stagnating economies, it is no longer economically visible to offer all people the medical insurance cover they need. The burden has been therefore left to the workers to seek private insurance covers, which are very expensive to them.