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Report: Idaho's Uninsured Neglect Their Medical Care: Series of Events Set for Next Week to Discuss Findings, Solutions

Posted on: Wednesday, 26 April 2006, 12:01 CDT

By Melissa McGrath, The Idaho Statesman, Boise

Apr. 26--The uninsured population in Idaho is nearly four times more likely to go without preventive medical care than people who have insurance, according to a new study released today.

Of the estimated 212,000 uninsured Idahoans, about 42 percent said they could not afford to see a doctor when needed, according to "The Coverage Gap," a state-by-state study on the uninsured population released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. That compares with 11 percent of people in Idaho with insurance who said they did not go to the doctor when needed because of costs.

"Idaho is not substantially different than the rest of the nation," said David Morse, vice president of communications for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a health care advocacy group. "What I think this data shows is that across the board, across the country, people without health insurance, are sicker and less likely to get the care they need. And when they do get care, their condition is much worse."

For example, the study showed uninsured men and women are much less likely than insured people to get preventive cancer screenings.

Idaho ranked second-worst in the nation for its rate of uninsured women ages 40 to 65 getting mammograms. About 66 percent of the uninsured women in that category have not had a mammogram in the past two years, according to the study. Women are encouraged to get a mammogram every year.

About 33 percent of insured women in that age group had not had a mammogram in two years.

Only Missouri had a worse rate of mammograms, with 68 percent of uninsured women not getting a mammogram in the past two years.

"It is an access problem," said Bill Foxcroft, the executive director of the Idaho Primary Care Association, which helps the state's community health centers provide care to the uninsured and underserved populations.

The health centers have to refer patients to other hospitals and clinics to get mammograms, and the Idaho Women's Health Check program, which gives free mammograms, only serves low-income women over the age of 50, Foxcroft said.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and local health care officials hope the study will highlight the problems that uninsured people face and spark more interest in Cover the Uninsured Week, which runs May 1-7. The foundation encourages communities across the nation to hold local events to educate the public on issues surrounding the uninsured during the week.

Boise State University and the Healthy Community Access Program (HCAP) are sponsoring several events next week to educate the public on uninsured issues.

"We aren't pushing a particular agenda, but we're opening a dialogue on how we need to be doing something different," said Julia Robinson, project director for HCAP, a coalition of community health centers, local hospitals and non-profit organizations. "We think it is positive to talk about ideas. We selected the university to do that because the university is intended to be a place where you can debate ideas without being polarized."

HCAP officials want the public to come to the speeches and debates on BSU's campus next week to learn about possible solutions to the problem.

"That's the thing about the uninsured -- it affects all of us," Robinson said. "For the insured, it affects rates in the insurance market."

Families USA, a national health consumer organization, found that uninsured people pay for about one-third of their health care costs. A portion of the remaining costs are picked up by tax-supported federal, state and local government sources, like the county welfare programs in Idaho, but most of the remaining costs are shifted and added on to the insurance premiums of people who have health coverage, the report said.

The Robert Wood Johnson study released today also shows that Idaho can improve, Robinson said. She pointed to the study's findings that uninsured people in other rural states in the West, like Montana and North Dakota, said they had better access to doctors when they needed care.

"It is possible to improve on these statistics because other states are doing it," she said. But the statistics also show that no state has figured out a perfect solution, and that is why the public needs to start talking about the uninsured issue and possible solutions, she said.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Idaho Statesman, Boise

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Source: The Idaho Statesman, Boise

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