How many Americans do not have health care?

Answer 1

When someone speaks of "health care", the term generally means "health care coverage", meaning some form of 3rd-party insurance which will pay for medical treatments, whether that insurance comes from a private insurer, a government program, or some combination of the two.

As of 2012, about 18% of the population (about 50 million people) does not have health coverage of any kind.

Here's the breakdown (note that the elderly (65+) are not included in these numbers, since they all are covered by Medicare):

• The "working poor" (those making less than 139% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), which works out to about $32,000 for a family of 4) make up 29% of the total popoulate, have an uninsured rate of 34%, are 52% of the total number of all uninsured.
• The lower middle and middle classes (140-250% of FPL, or up to $57,000 for a family of 4) make up 18% of the population, have an uninsurance rate of 24%, and make up about 24% of the total uninsured
• The upper middle class (250-400% of FPL, $92,000) makes up 19% of the population, have a 12% uninsurance rate, and make up 13% of all uninsured
• The upper class (400%+, more than $92,000) makes up 33% of the popoulation, has an uninsurance rate of 5.3%, and makes up 10% of the uninsured.

In terms of citizenship:

• 16% of all citizens are uninsured
• 47% of all non-citizens (whether here legally or illegally) are uninsured
• That's about 40 million uninsured citizens, and 9 million uninsured non-citizens

Current law states that no person (whether citizen or legal or illegal non-citizen) can be turned away from a hospital when in need of emergency care. Hospitals are required to give such care, regardless of ability to pay. HOWEVER, all such people will be billed for that care, and are legally obligated to pay that debt. As such, the requirement to be given treatment can hardly be called "health care", and no facility is required to give care for non-emergency cases.

There are free clinics and other charity-based services which can provide some treatment, but the availability of such places is highly variable, and the available treatments spotty at best, meaning they cannot be considered "health care" in any systemic manner.

Neither the manatory hospital treatment nor the availability of charity services is considered "heath care" coverage in any survey or statistical study.