What are the official estimates though of underinsurance in the USA?
Studies of underinsurance most often count only those as “underinsured” who were insured yet had a major medical need that they could not fulfill due to it’s high cost. This is like counting uninsured drivers, as only those who while without insurance crashed their vehicles. It doesn’t mean that everyone else is properly or adequately insured. Another measure of underinsurance that has sometimes been used is having health care expenses that exceed 10% of pre-tax family income. This is a more relevant measure and was estimated to include 61 million Americans in 2006, up 65% from ten years earlier. Note also that more than 75% of Americans who spend over 25% of family income on health care are insured. Reference Even defined in this very conservative way though, the underinsured would number about half again as many as those uninsured in 2007. The underinsured for 2007, by the way, represented an increase over 2003 numbers by 60%.
