Many Americans believe that people who lack health insurance somehow get the care they really need. Care Without Coverage examines the real consequences for adults who lack health insurance. The study presents findings in the areas of prevention and screening, cancer, chronic illness, hospital-based care, and general health status. The committee looked at the consequences of being uninsured for people suffering from cancer, diabetes, HIV infection and AIDS, heart and kidney disease, mental illness, traumatic injuries, and heart attacks. It focused on the roughly 30 million-one in seven-working-age Americans without health insurance. This group does not include the population over 65 that is covered by Medicare or the nearly 10 million children who are uninsured in this country. The main findings of the report are that working-age Americans without health insurance are more likely to receive too little medical care and receive it too late; be sicker and die sooner; and receive poorer care when they are in the hospital, even for acute situations like a motor vehicle crash.

"Drawing upon a wealth of research, Coombs compares HMOs throughout the nation with the one in Marshfield, which came as close as any HMO to realizing the ideal of early advocates. This book is a resource for specialists in the fields of health policy research and analysis, health care management, health law and politics, public health, and social and organizational history of medicine. It will also appeal to many readers who are disturbed by the current stae of America's health care system and are curious about its future."--BOOK JACKET.

The health care system in this country is broke; and more than ever, the evidence supports the contention that managed health care providers care more about healthy profits than healthy people.FIGHT BACK AND WIN is a practical how-to for all those Americans who worry that their heath care coverage won't be there when they need it.Chapters include: *How to Get Your HMO to Pay Up * Bothersome HMO Traps to Watch Out For * Practical Tips to Follow so that You Don't End Up in an HMO Dispute * Legal Tips to Follow if Your Claim Is Denied * How Ordinary People Fought HMOs. . .and Won * Answers to the 9 Most Commonly Asked Coverage Questions * The Awful ERISA Scandal * Sample Letter to Your Member of Congress * Insurance Traps that Can Effectively Cancel Your Coverage * What Your Insurance Company Won't Tell You *What to Do if an Insurance Company Tries to Rescind Your Policy and more.

"This report from the 1996 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) presents estimates of the total number of people enrolled in HMO (health maintenance organization) plans for the first half of 1996."--Abstract.