Medically Indigent Adults (MIAs) in the
health care system
A health system, health care system or healthcare system is an organization of people, institutions, and resources that delivers health care services to meet the health needs of target populations.
There is a wide variety of health systems aroun ...
of the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
are persons who do not have
health insurance
Health insurance or medical insurance (also known as medical aid in South Africa) is a type of insurance that covers the whole or a part of the risk of a person incurring medical expenses. As with other types of insurance, risk is shared among ma ...
and who are not eligible for other
health care
Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...
such as
Medicaid
Medicaid is a government program in the United States that provides health insurance for adults and children with limited income and resources. The program is partially funded and primarily managed by U.S. state, state governments, which also h ...
,
Medicare, or private health insurance. This is a term that is used both medically and for the general public. According to data reported by The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation in 2017, 45% of non-elderly adults do not have medical insurance because of cost. Those who are "medically indigent earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to purchase either health insurance or health care." Medically indigent people with significant illnesses face several barriers to health insurance. States like
South Carolina
South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...
came up with their own MIAP program to assist those who fall in the gaps.
Government Help
On March 23, 2010, the
Affordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and informally as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Presid ...
came into effect, which impacted the definition of medical indigence in the United States. The act is credited as benefiting hundreds of thousands of Americans. The initial intent for the act was to insure every person living in the United States, however, in a 2015 article,
FiveThirtyEight
''FiveThirtyEight'', also rendered as ''538'', was an American website that focused on opinion poll analysis, politics, economics, and sports blogging in the United States.
The website, which took its name from the number of electors in the U ...
stated that the act did not fix the entire problem as it did not cover
undocumented.
Acts such as
EMTALA ensure that every person coming into the emergency room must be treated regardless of insurance, with the patient left with the responsibility of paying the bill. The gap of not qualifying for insurance, as well as not being able to apply for insurance, leave these people in medical indigence.
Living Outside the qualified lines
Many states do not allow people access to Medicaid, even in cases of extreme poverty, if no minor children are present in the home and they have not proven they are disabled. These people have no recourse to government provided healthcare and must rely on private charitable health programs, if any exist, in their area.
No Discrimination
The term also applies to those incapable, mentally or physically, to perform certain acts in consideration with the position of financial level. Lack of capacity: financial, physical, as well as mental can be considered with verification, Medically Indigent. In the United States this term is applied regardless of race, religion, creed, or ethnicity, an actual state of being, very close to a disability, yet on the border of seemingly or likely to be non-functional at the time of decision making.
Receiving the Help Needed
Government MIA programs at the
state
State most commonly refers to:
* State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory
**Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country
**Nation state, a ...
or
county
A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...
or
municipal
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the gov ...
level may help MIAs access medical care by paying for all or part of the cost of their medical care. Such programs are typically of last resort, and are available only to those who meet the "last resort" socioeconomic eligibility standards. Many people can't afford the outrageous medical bills and fall into the MIA criteria.
See also
*
Disproportionate share hospital
The United States government provides funding to hospitals that treat indigent patients through the Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) programs, under which facilities are able to receive at least partial compensation.
Although 3,109 hospitals ...
*
Poor person
References
Further reading
* {{Cite journal, last=Hartog, first=Joseph, date=1983-06-01, title=The San Francisco Medically Indigent Adults: One Possible Solution, url=https://www.healio.com/psychiatry/journals/psycann/1983-6-13-6/%7B52481d77-22be-417b-a3ad-99edd8ba83eb%7D/the-san-francisco-medically-indigent-adults-one-possible-solution, journal=Psychiatric Annals, language=en, volume=13, issue=6, pages=493–501, doi=10.3928/0048-5713-19830601-10, issn=0048-5713, url-access=subscription
Health insurance
Healthcare in the United States
Medicare and Medicaid (United States)