Why Is This Important?
Access to quality health care services is critical to achieve and maintain health, prevent and manage disease, and achieve health equity. Lack of health insurance can make health care inaccessible and unaffordable. 2022 NC SHIP, pg. 94.
Story Behind the Curve
The 2021 NC State Health Improvement Plan Community Council Meeting and Stakeholder Symposia stimulated dialogue among attendees. Questions that the participants posed included:
- Is healthcare a right?
- What is the standard for high quality health care? Is there a living document?
- What does high quality mean? Standards of care have been established.
- Who shares the responsibility?
- Who benefits from high quality healthcare?
- Does the government bail out insurance companies by giving a certain amount of care but doesn’t address root causes or families getting the care that they need?
- Who owns this issue in the state?
- Who were the community caregivers? Are there enough of the other groups to meet the unmet need?
- Did the care of people fall to the community when we did not have health insurance 100 years ago?
- Does shared responsibility bring out the opportunity to do nothing?
2021 NC SHIP Stakeholder Symposia Participants
The same attendees expanded the story expanded about uninsured people with these collective statements:
“People need information about the different levels of insurance within plans.”
“Many people do not qualify for the subsidies and fall into a coverage gap.”
“Because North Carolina has a robust safety net, there is a philosophical and political bias against support for Medicaid expansion.”
“The safety net is an excuse not to expand Medicaid.”
“We may need new words to describe the problems and the solutions to avoid the pitfalls of bias in our public discourse.”
“The terminology we use for the uninsured can be stigmatizing.”
“The undocumented population doesn’t qualify for these services.”
“Implicit bias needs to be addressed to create change.”
“Paternal leave/care not offered by some employers.”
“Family care excludes father.”
2022 NC SHIP, pg. 96
Partners
What Works
- Expand Medicaid eligibility criteria
- Increase publicity and navigator funding for open enrollment
- Increase public education about insurance options
- Support bans or limitations on short-term health plans
Description of Indicator Data
US Census Bureau - Small Area Health Insurance Estimates (SAHIE) Program
Additional Data Needed at Local Level
- Impact of Covid-19 pandemic on employer sponsored insurance
- Estimates of underinsured/uninsured at the county level
- Major employer insurance benefits available in area
- Analysis of support/opposition by elected officials to Medicaid expansion
- Stories from consumers/residents and their experience