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Private Option

Health care in the United States
Government Health Programs

Private health coverage

Health care reform law

State level reform
Municipal health coverage


In the United States, health insurance is any program that helps pay for medical expenses, whether through privately purchased insurance, social insurance or a social welfare program funded by the government. Synonyms for this usage include "health coverage", "health care coverage" and "health benefits".

In a more technical sense, the term is used to describe any form of insurance that provides protection against the costs of medical services. This usage includes private insurance and social insurance programs such as Medicare, which pools resources and spreads the financial risk associated with major medical expenses across the entire population to protect everyone, as well as social welfare programs such as Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program, which provide assistance to people who cannot afford health coverage.

In addition to medical expense insurance, "health insurance" may also refer to insurance covering disability or long-term nursing or custodial care needs. Different health insurance provides different levels of financial protection and the scope of coverage can vary widely, with more than 40 percent of insured individuals reporting that their plans do not adequately meet their needs as of 2007.

The share of Americans without health insurance has been cut in half since 2013. Many of the reforms instituted by the Affordable Care Act of 2010 were designed to extend health care coverage to those without it; however, high cost growth continues unabated. National health expenditures are projected to grow 4.7% per person per year from 2016–2025. Public healthcare spending was 29% of federal mandated spending in 1990, 35% in 2000, and is projected to be roughly half in 2025.

The proportion of non-elderly individuals with employer-sponsored cover fell from 66% in 2000 to 56% in 2010, then stabilized following the passage of the Affordable Care Act. Employees who worked part time (less than 30 hours a week) were less likely to be offered coverage by their employer than were employees who worked full time (21% vs. 72%).

A major trend in employer sponsored cover has been increasing premiums, deductibles, and co-payments for medical services, and increasing the costs of using out-of-network health providers rather than in-network providers.


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