Lack of Insurance Damages Individual Health, Health System

Hundreds of Events Raise National Awareness During Covering the Uninsured Week 2003

Dates of Project: March 2003

Field of Work: Raising awareness of the plight of the millions of Americans who lack health insurance coverage.

Problem Synopsis: Research has shown that lack of health insurance has serious, negative effects on the health of individuals who lack coverage. It also affects the health care system overall, since uninsured individuals are more likely to seek expensive emergency care.

Synopsis of the Work: Cover the Uninsured Week, March 10–16, 2003, focused national media attention on the coverage problem and featured 880 events—town meetings, health fairs, and other public events in communities across all 50 states. At the time, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), it was the largest public awareness campaign ever conducted on the health and economic consequences of America's uninsured population.

This sidebar describes reports on the individual and community impacts of the uninsured, including an Institute of Medicine report on the impact of the uninsured population on community health services funded by RWJF and released just before Cover the Uninsured Week.

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