(Health Insurance Coverage, 2009). This is just a little higher than what was reported in the state of Pennsylvania over the last two-year period, which was at 25% (Krawczeniuk, 2009). "The number of uninsured rose 2.2 million between 2005 and 2006 and has increased by almost 8 million people since 2000" (Health Insurance Coverage, 2009). Most Americans are provided with health insurance coverage through their employers. But in today's society employment is no longer a guarantee of health insurance coverage. "As America continues to move from a manufacturing-based economy to a service economy, and employee working patterns continue to evolve, health insurance coverage has become less stable. The service sector tends to offer less access to health insurance than the manufacturing sector does. Further, an increasing reliance on part-time and contract workers who are not eligible for coverage means fewer workers have access to employer-sponsored health insurance" (Health Insurance Coverage, 2009).

Due to the fact that health insurance premiums are on the rise, many small employers cannot afford to offer health benefits. Companies that do offer health insurance are requiring employees to contribute bigger and bigger shares toward their coverage. And because of this an increasing number of Americans are opting not to take advantage of health insurance that is offered by their employers because they simply cannot afford it (Health Insurance Coverage, 2009).

The effects of people not having health insurance can be seen not only in the State of Pennsylvania, but across the nation as a whole....

The impact on Americans of going uninsured is obvious and harsh. Many uninsured individuals end up postponing needed medical care which results in increased mortality and billions of dollars lost in productivity and increased expenses to the health care system. There also exists a significant sense of helplessness to the possible loss of health insurance which is felt by tens of millions of other Americans who have managed to keep coverage. Every American should be provided with health care coverage, and participation should be mandatory, so that everyone would have basic benefits. Experts feel that getting everyone covered will save lives and money (Health Insurance Coverage, 2009).
The study that was don in the state of Pennsylvania only goes to show that the gap in health insurance coverage is not a limited problem just in that state, but is a bigger problem that can be seen everywhere. Doing these kind of studies and using descriptive statistics to analyze the data can show whether or not the findings are localized or are typical of the bigger picture. In this study these findings turned out to be very typical of what is going on in the nation and show that there is a real problem that needs to be addressed.

References

Descriptive Statistics. (2006). Retrieved May 5, 2009, from Research Methods Knowledge Base

Web site: http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/statdesc.php

Health Insurance Coverage. (2009). Retrieved May 5, 2009, from National Coalition on Healthcare Web site: http://www.nchc.org/facts/coverage.shtml

Krawczeniuk,…