The issue of medical insurance access is an important one for our country. Making sure that folks can go to the doctor when they need to and not die or suffer from treatable ailments is something that most people, regardless of political persuasion, believe in. They certainly differ about how to provide that access to medical care, but they typically can agree that there is a problem.

To really understand the problem of medical insurance access, however, the first question you need to ask is this:

Why doesn’t everyone already have medical insurance?

The answer isn’t as simple as some politicians would like you to think. There are a number of different reasons why folks may not have medical insurance. Some are reasons that can be fixed, others aren’t.

Here are some of the most common reasons people don’t have medical insurance:

• They can’t afford it. There are some people who don’t make enough money to buy medical insurance. To be sure, many people who don’t make enough money to be able to buy medical insurance may actually be able to get medical insurance through another means. Parents of children in low-income households may qualify for Medicaid, for example. Many states also have insurance programs that work on a sliding scale. The number of people who can’t afford insurance and don’t qualify for a program like Medicaid may be much smaller than some folks assume.
• They don’t know they could have it. That’s one of the biggest problems we really face right now. Educating people about their options to access. While some states have made efforts to get the word out about medical insurance assistance programs, in many places people who can’t afford it don’t know they’re eligible. For some folks, such as the self-employed, there are group programs they could buy into via local organizations such as their Chamber of Commerce, and they may not be aware of these programs either.
• They don’t want it. There are some folks, especially those on the younger end of the spectrum, who specifically choose not to have a medical insurance plan even if it’s offered by their employer and they can afford it. Part of youth is feeling invincible, and they may want to save those few bucks a month because they feel like they’ll live forever. It’s not particularly wise, but it’s not a problem that’s easily solved, either.

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