Wall Street Journal Profiles Uninsured Woman’s Experience Accessing, Paying for Care

The Wall Street Journal on Nov. 12 profiles Amandeep Kaur, a 23-year-old New York City resident without health insurance who "epitomizes the people whose lives are a day-to-day struggle to stay healthy so they can keep working to stay healthy." Kaur, who has glaucoma, faces the "pincer of soaring drug and medical costs and unaffordable health insurance" and must "act as her own physician and druggist," the Journal reports. She has an annual income of $16,000, which disqualifies her for Medicaid, and she does not have access to or knowledge of the few programs available that could help her. According to the Journal, Kaur and millions of U.S. residents in similar situations have "slipped through the gaping holes" in the nation's health care "safety net." The Journal reports that the problem "lays bare the political and economic forces that make it hard to mend those holes," such as the pharmaceutical industry's opposition to price controls on prescription drugs, the inability of hospitals to control costs and the failure of the government to expand health coverage to the uninsured. "The sociology of decision making and uninsured don't overlap. We simply don't share a common experience," James Tallon, president of the United Hospital Fund, said (Lagnado, Wall Street Journal, 11/12).