Stories of the Uninsured

Abstract

There are twenty-eight million Americans who face the fear and uncertainty of being uninsured, and their precarious situations and tragic stories too often go unnoticed. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was intended to ensure that nearly everyone in the country had health insurance, yet millions of people manage to slip through the cracks every year. Where are these cracks? And how do people end up falling through them? This chapter will address some of the many reasons why people in the United States are uninsured. The single biggest factor is that people can’t afford health insurance, but social barriers like unstable employment and low levels of education and literacy also stand in the way. These social determinants of health are exacerbated by complex public program rules and people’s ever-shifting circumstances.