New study finds fewer families can afford health insurance (USA)

The majority of uninsured American families who are not covered by group health insurance through an employer cannot afford to buy health insurance, according to a new study by HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Some experts have suggested that because 23.8 million uninsured Americans under age 65 who do not have access to employer-based health insurance have incomes above the federal poverty line, they can afford to purchase policies if they so choose. But new data show otherwise. "Wealth, Income, and The Affordability of Health Insurance," published in the May/June 2009 issue of Health Affairs, shows that measuring families' median net worth - the value of their savings plus other assets minus debt rather than just income - provides more precise estimates of the percentage who could purchase policies if they chose to do so. Until now, most studies have used income alone to estimate how many more Americans could be covered by health insurance - redOrbit