The Access Project

Title: Paying for Health Care When You're Uninsured: How Much Support Does the Safety Net Offer?

Copyright Date: Jan. 2003

Pages: 20

Authors: Dennis Andrulis and Lisa Duchon, SUNY Downstate Medical Center; Carol Pryor, The Access Project; Nanette Goodman, Cornell Center for Policy Research

Description: The Access Project collaborated with community-based organizations to survey the uninsured about their experiences getting care at local, mainly safety-net, health care institutions. Called the Community Access Monitoring Survey (CAMS), the survey gathered data from over 10,000 uninsured people in 18 states.

Based on the responses of over 6,000 respondents who received outpatient care at local hospitals and clinics, this national report presents findings on the experiences of uninsured patients in trying to pay for their medical care and prescription drugs.

The findings indicate that even at safety-net facilities, which provide the bulk of the care for the uninsured, uninsured patients face great difficulties in paying for care, are often not offered info rmation about financial assistance options, and are frequently in debt to the facility. The findings also indicate that providing info rmation about financial assistance programs makes a difference: the more likely staff offered info rmation, the less likely individuals were to owe money to the facility.

There are also local reports for each participating community that presents the findings for that specific location.

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Topics: Medical Debt | CAMS Project | Uninsured and Health Care Safety Net