Health insurance itself does not make anyone healthier or sicker. Removing or reducing the financial barriers to accessing healthcare that health insurance makes possible helps create an environment where preventive care is encouraged and health problems may be detected at earlier more manageable stages. Past statistics showed a correlation between having health insurance and better health. However, those statistics come from the era when underwriting of health insurance for risk was allowed and individuals could be declined for coverage for pre-existing conditions. Starting in 2014 such practices are no longer allowed in the fully insured health insurance marketplaces and so a totally different risk pool is being created and we are essentially working on the assumption that expanding access to care will correlate with improved health care outcomes. As health care reform is easing access for some segments of our population that may have been on the outside looking in in the past, it is also raising premium costs and out-of-pocket expenses to levels that are either forcing some previously insured persons out of insurance coverage or significantly raising the out-of-pocket expenses they must incur before their coverage kicks in which may deter some people from seeking needed treatment. For this reason the jury will be out for some time as to whether our current health insurance reform efforts will yield improved health for the general population.
A person can have the best health insurance possible but if the individual does not take responsibility for managing their health (smoking cessation, weight management, exercise, etc.) their overall health status is unlikely to improve.
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A person can have the best health insurance possible but if the individual does not take responsibility for managing their health (smoking cessation, weight management, exercise, etc.) their overall health status is unlikely to improve.