A National Study of Chronic Disease Prevalence and Access to Care in Uninsured U.S. Adults, Annals of Internal Medicine [subscription or fee req’d] Andrew P. Wilper, MD, MPH; Steffie Woolhandler, MD, MPH; Karen E. Lasser, MD, MPH; Danny McCormick, MD, MPH; David H. Bor, MD; and David U. Himmelstein, MD, 5 August 2008 | Volume 149 Issue 3 | Pages 170-176
“On the basis of National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (19992004) responses, an estimated 11.4 million (95% CI, 9.8 million to 13.0 million) working-age Americans with chronic conditions were uninsured, including 16.1% (CI, 12.6% to 19.6%) of the 7.8 million with cardiovascular disease, 15.5% (CI, 13.4% to 17.6%) of the 38.2 million with hypertension, and 16.6% (CI, 13.2% to 20.0%) of the 8.5 million with diabetes. After the authors controlled for age, sex, and race or ethnicity, chronically ill patients without insurance were more likely than those with coverage to have not visited a health professional (22.6% vs. 6.2%) and to not have a standard site for care (26.1% vs. 6.2%) but more likely to identify their standard site for care as an emergency department (7.1% vs. 1.1%) (P <0.001 for all comparisons)...
Conclusion: Millions of U.S. working-age adults with chronic conditions do not have insurance and have poorer access to medical care than their insured counterparts.”
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