Page 49 - Book5E

CHAPTER 7
Maintaining Appropriate
Levels of Health
Insurance Coverage
As you strive to build upon the good habits of budgeting properly, living within your means, and socking money away for unexpected expenses and emergencies, another key strategy in your efforts to improve your lifestyle deals with maintaining appropriate levels of insurance to help protect you from catastrophic expenses due to illness, accidents, or even death. In this section we discuss the importance of maintaining adequate levels of health insurance, life insurance, and homeowners insurance. We also briefly introduce additional types of insurance worth considering, including catastrophic health, umbrella liability, disability, and long-term care.
Health Insurance
As reported by MSNBC News Services, the percentage of working- age Americans with moderate to middle incomes who lacked health insurance for at least part of the year rose to 41% in 2005, a dramatic increase from the 28% in 2001 without coverage. In addition, more than half of the uninsured adults said they were having problems paying their medical bills, with 20% of working adults paying off medical debt—often $2,000 or more.
The U.S. Census Bureau reports that more than 48 million Americans did not have health insurance in 2004. A study of 4,350 adults con- ducted by the Commonwealth Fund, a New York-based private health care policy foundation, reported the following eye-opening statistics:
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