Health & Wellness

This section includes data on uninsured populations and national, state and local trends on a variety of health issues.

Highlights:

• Based on a study released by Families USA in March 2009, about 27 percent of non-elderly Iowans were without insurance for some part of 2007-08.
• Most of the uninsured — about 85 percent — are members of working families.¹
• Additional findings by The Iowa Policy Project in April 2009 found that job trends keep showing that growing sectors (primarily service industries) are less likely to pay well and are less likely to offer health-insurance benefits. Those trends also show that declining sectors are the ones where pay and benefits have been better. The combination of these trends means that it’s more difficult to get insurance through employment.¹
• Over 28,000 persons have no health insurance within the UWECI services area and are unable to meet their individual and family health needs.²
• Health services research has consistently documented a disparity in access to and use of medical services. Compared to persons who have health insurance, the uninsured:
  • receive less preventative care,
  • are diagnosed at more advanced disease states, and
  • once diagnosed, tend to receive less therapeutic care and have higher mortality rates.³

Sources:
12009 Iowa Policy Project Report
2 2006 U.S. Census Small Area Health Insurance Estimates
3The Cost of Care for the Uninsured: What Do We Spend, Who Pays, and What Would Full Coverage Add to Medical Spending? By the Kaiser Commission, The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 2004.

Health and Wellness