We know that being poor means you'll be unlikely to afford good access to medical insurance, but what do you do if your state and your employer don't offer employees access to good
group health insurance coverage either?
You hope you don't get sick or injured, that's what you do.
According to a study released at
MSN Health, the Southwest ranks lowest in terms of access to health care. Why? Mostly because many jobs in the Southwest are service or construction jobs (or others) that don't offer employees the benefit of enrolling in a group health insurance plan.
The majority of Americans with access to good health care today have it because their employers have enrolled them in a group health insurance plan. Group health insurance rates are often much lower because insurance companies take in more money than they spend - in other words, everyone is paying, but only a couple are bound to get sick or hurt. Therefore, rates can be lower.
But in some workplaces employers don't offer these services, and in the Southwest state legislation that would protect these workers hasn't been enacted.
The result is that people in these states are less likely to get checkups, and spend more time and money in the emergency room when something does go wrong.
In the long run, this costs everyone, since medical debt filters down into medical insurance premiums that we all pay. So the truth is, no matter what kind of coverage you have, we're all paying for the fact that some hard working Americans aren't getting the insurance coverage they need.
