Scientific American poll: 90% fail at buying their own health insurance

[Nords]

I was going to add this to an existing health insurance thread, but what the heck-- you can never have too many health insurance threads.

Most forgo buying own U.S. health insurance

"Nine out of 10 Americans who tried to buy their own health insurance failed, either because the price was too steep or because they were denied coverage due to a current medical problem, a study said on Thursday.
There were 46.6 million uninsured Americans last year, or nearly 16 percent of the population, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures which represented a slight gain from a year earlier. Among the fastest-growing segments of the newly uninsured were those with jobs.
About 43 percent of those with individual coverage spent more than 5 percent of their income on health premiums, compared to 14 percent insured through employer plans, the study found."

[. . . Yrs to Go]

I saw this and thought that maybe paying $11K for healthcare in NJ isn't that bad considering that I may not be able to get it at any price in other states.*

[maddythebeagle]

About 43 percent of those with individual coverage spent more than 5 percent of their income on health premiums, compared to 14 percent insured through employer plans, the study found.

This is a little confusing...could be saying that people that have individual coverage have higher incomes or people that have group coverage through work pay more

[jeff2006]

Originally Posted by Nords

* * *
* * *About 43 percent of those with individual coverage spent more than 5 percent of their income on health premiums, compared to 14 percent insured through employer plans, the study found."

I read this as "About 43 percent of those with individual coverage spent more than 5% of their income on heath premiums, whereas only 14 % of those insured through employer plans spent more than 5 % of thier income on health coverage."