Medically uninsured at risk

Utah's uninsured number more than 300,000, according a new Utah Department of Health report. This is an upward trend, affecting mainly young adults age 19 to 26, those with household incomes at or below 200 percent of the poverty level, adults without a high school diploma and Utahns of Hispanic ethnicity.

Uninsured people are more likely to skip routine medical care and seek assistance instead at emergency rooms or urgent-care centers, where costs are much higher. Worse yet, they are far less likely to receive recommended screenings to detect cancer when it is most treatable. A new Robert Wood Johnson Foundation report found that 61 percent of uninsured women in Utah have not received mammograms in the past two years. This is among the highest percentages nationwide.

This issue likely doesn't resonate with the nearly 80 percent of Utahns who have some form of health coverage. But it should, because people who do not have insurance generally do not seek medical assistance until they are very ill or hurt. With no insurance to cover the cost of their care, the expenses trickle down to people with insurance, employers who offer insurance and the health-care system. Everyone has a stake in this issue.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. obviously appreciates the gravity of this issue. He has established a working group to determine the scope of the problem in Utah and identify possible strategies to reverse the growing number of Utahns who do not have medical coverage. The working group is co-chaired by Dr. David Sundwall, executive director of the Utah Department of Health.

Nationally, some 46 million Americans, including 8 million children, have no health insurance. Unlike Utah, where many of the uninsured are young adults, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has learned that an increasing number of Americans over age 50 have no health care coverage. At this point in life, many require important screenings such as colonoscopies to detect colon cancer and mammography to detect the early stages of breast cancer.

The trickle down economics of a large number of Americans who do not have health coverage are well established. Perhaps more compelling is the realization that it also means premature death. As Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, chief executive officer of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, notes about the foundation's new findings, "Our neighbors, friends and relatives without health insurance live sicker and will likely die younger than whose who have insurance."

That's the reality of this trend.