Health Insurance Coverage

Abstract

The most prominent feature of American health insurance coverage is its slow erosion, even as the government seeks to plug the gaps in coverage through such new programs as Medicare+Choice, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), expansions of state Medicaid programs, and the $24 billion Children's Health Insurance Program of 1997. Despite these efforts, the proportion of Americans without insurance increased from 14.2 percent in 1995 to 15.3 percent in 1996 and to 16.1 percent in 1997, when 43.4 million people were uninsured. Not as well appreciated is the fact that the number of people who are underinsured, . . .