Researchers have found that homeless youths are less likely to have health insurance. The researchers interviewed foster teenagers who had unstable housing conditions and found that nearly 75% of those kids didn't have health insurance.
It's a miracle that 25% percent of those kids have health insurance.
(Personally, I didn't have health insurance the entire time I was in college, and I had the advantages of a roof over my head and a supportive family. I assume that 25% of homeless youth must be the protagonist of the book Evasion.)
One researcher believes that these homeless youths have something called "Priorities." These kids are worried about the dangers they face in the here and now like shelterlessness and survival. They also don't have a billing address.
The goal of insurance is to protect the insured against financial ruin in the face of illness. The homeless are already financially ruined. Most emergency rooms can't refuse treatment to patients. Even if the hospital wants to bill the homeless person for the medical help, the hospital won't be able to collect.
(I doubt that homeless people are going to hospitals to get routine physicals or to have skin blemishes removed.)
Why would they buy insurance? Who thought that this study was a good idea? Why prove something that is common sense?
Their next big study will answer the question: Why are there more dead people in coffins than living people? I hope to god they can solve that doozy.
Homelessness is often the problem of a preexisting illness whether it be an addiction or a mental affliction. If a person is living on the street, it is probably some sort of illness that lead them there in the first place.
Perhaps they could study ways of preventing the illnesses and addictions that lead people to a transient lifestyle or at the very least, do something worthwhile with their time.
(I think someone may have turned in last-minute thesis project.)
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