Texas #1 In Uninsured - Who Are They? They Are US!

Recently, I have been posting about how Texas leads the country in the number of citizens uninsured for health care and how a lot of those people end up on Social Security disability because they cannot get treatment for chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease until it is too late. More recently I reported that the rate of those that are uninsured continues to go up and that in the area of mental health care the problem is extremely alarming. I think this will lead to even more Social Security disability claims.

As I mentioned, attorneys that help claimants obtain Social Security Disability benefits also help them obtain Medicare and/or Medicaid which are federal government health insurance programs that finally allow them to receive medical care. Also, we can try and help individuals who are waiting to have their Social Security Disability claims decided, locate low cost or possibly free medical services designed for those who have no income and have medical need.

A new study has come out that tells us who the uninsured are. Some results – such as almost half of the uninsured are unemployed are not that surprising – but other results might not be what you expect. More than a third of the uninsured have an annual family income over $50,000 per year. Approximately 21 percent of the uninsured have at least some college education or more. Legal immigrants only make up 6 percent of the uninsured.

Most remarkably is that over 30% of Texans from the ages of 18 to 64 are uninsured in Texas! Thus, if you remove children from this statistic (who can get on the state CHIP program), and seniors who are on the federal Medicare and/or Medicaid problems (due to their age) – the actual rate of those uninsured is almost 1/3 of all working age adults. It is no wonder that a chronic medical condition can turn into a disabling condition which qualifies for Social Security Disability benefits.

While our national health care law (often called “Obamacare”) is moving toward providing health insurance for all, our Governor is against efforts to provide health insurance to all. In my opinion, if we could provide quality healthcare to all, we would actually save our nation money by reducing the number of persons who end up on Social Security disability because they cannot get treatment for chronic conditions. Untreated chronic conditions can and do get worse – resulting in those conditions becoming disabling. For expert representation and help in negotating through maze of programs that exist for the uninsured, contact the board certified attorneys of Morgan & Weisbrod, L.L.P.
Source: Texas Tribune, “Interactive: Who Are the Uninsured in Texas?” by Becca Aaronson, January 26, 2012
(http://www.texastribune.org/library/data/texas-health-care-uninsured-demographics/)

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