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AIDS, health insurance, and the crisis of community
Ist Teil von
Notre Dame journal of law, ethics & public policy, 1990, Vol.5 (1), p.35-51
Ort / Verlag
United States
Erscheinungsjahr
1990
Link zum Volltext
Quelle
MEDLINE
Beschreibungen/Notizen
The health-care system in the US, funded primarily by employer-sponsored insurance networks & supplemented by government entitlement programs for retired or unemployed individuals, is seemingly threatened by the astronomical costs for providing care to persons with AIDS ([acquired immune deficiency syndrome] PWAs), according to the self-serving assertions of private insurers. However, the real crisis of health insurance is due to competitive demands that have narrowed pools of costs for health care, & the demand for profitability & financial efficiency; it is now impossible to offer insurance to all those in the community who need it. The question of who is included or excluded is compounded by the demographics of AIDS patients, the majority of whom belong to deviant groups, eg, gay men & drug users. Policy implications for access to health care by gay men normally carrying employer-provided insurance are discussed. Underwriting rules tightened to minimize high-risk insurance use, & decreasing participation by employers in group plans left many un- or underinsured in the 1980s, while governmental health care was reduced to a commodity rather than an entitlement or social need. The insurance industry categorically refuses to underwrite gay men, employers hesitate to hire gays on both economic (higher premiums) & moral grounds (deviants); therefore, financial burdens that should be shared by the entire community are in fact borne by the gay community. J. Sadler