国际英语新闻:Poor Americans Struggle With High Health Care Costs

Census data released Tuesday show that 46 million people live in poverty in the United States. The 2010 census also shows that a slightly higher figure, almost 50 million people, in the U.S. do not have health coverage. 

Nearly one-sixth of the U.S. population lives in poverty.  Garrett Adams, a medical doctor in the southeastern United States, says financial constraints are preventing people from getting the life-saving health treatments they need.

Adams' voice choked with emotion as he addressed federal lawmakers Tuesday.  For several minutes, he spoke of people he knew personally, saying there is a cycle in which poverty can be a death sentence and illness can be a poverty sentence. 

"Clay Morgan, an automobile mechanic in Henry County, Kentucky, owned his own business.   He got malignant melanoma [a form of cancer], was treated, improved, and thought to be cured, but now was bankrupted.  Cancer returned.  Depressed, and unwilling to bring more medical debt on his family, Clay went into the backyard and took his own life," Adama said. 

Dr. Adams founded a not-for-profit medical clinic in a poor area of Tennessee last year.  He said he was tired of seeing friends in the mountain town being taken advantage of by for-profit hospitals and deprived of affordable health care. 

In 2010, nearly 50 million people in the United States did not have health insurance, a slightly higher number that the previous year.  Most of those uninsured are younger than 65, the age at which the government provides health care.  

Dr. Adams told U.S. lawmakers that health care options for younger Americans and the working poor are limited, and when they do find care, it can be too late.

"Doris, [age] 58, and her husband operated a small, local restaurant before her illness forced them to close the restaurant.  Estimated annual income $13,000.  No insurance.  No medical care.  She heard we offered mammograms.  We diagnosed breast cancer.  Paula, 32, cervical cancer surgery two years ago, but no follow-up because of no insurance and no money," Adams said.

In the United States, most people who have health coverage have such insurance through their employers.

Robert Greenstein is an economist and president of the Washington-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

"The number of people who are uninsured grew in 2010 due principally to continued erosion in employer-based coverage," said Greenstein.