Check out our recap of the Faith and Health Summit!

NC Council of Churches

Strength in Unity, Peace through Justice

Access to Healthcare – Proper 6 – June 18, 2017

Lectionary Year A – June 18, 2017

Sign up below to receive free worship resources in your inbox (1-2 per month):

Table of Contents

Links & Tools


Focus Text: Matthew 9:35-10:8

Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him. These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.”
Matthew 9:35-10:8

Overview

Pastoral Reflection by Rev. Robert Mangum (Pembroke), Pastor, Hickory Grove United Methodist Church, Clio, SC

After the priority of forgiveness, it seems the next most important good news kingdom mission of Jesus to the poor and to all peoples was health and wholeness, “To Cure Every Disease.” David reminds us of that ranking of priorities when he said, “Bless the Lord, O my soul and do not forget all his benefits, Who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases.” The compassion of Jesus drove Him to heal “every disease and every sickness… of the harassed and helpless.” Jesus was and is good news for “the whole person, in the whole community with the whole church.”

Key Fact

In 2015, over one million North Carolinians did not have health insurance. Disparities in health coverage are most apparent in economic status and race. North Carolina’s children are one of the State’s largest recipients of public health coverage.

Related Texts

For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt, I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored?
Jeremiah 8:21-22

When Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever; he touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she got up and began to serve him. That evening they brought to him many who were possessed with demons; and he cast out the spirits with a word, and cured all who were sick. This was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah, “He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.”
Matthew 8:14-17

When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them. Then some people came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, “Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves; and he said to them, “Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and take your mat and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic—“I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home.” And he stood up, and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”
Mark 2:1-12

Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.
James 5:13-16

Other Lectionary Texts

Genesis 18:1-15
Exodus 19:2-8a
Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19
Psalm 100
Romans 5:1-8

Scriptural Commentary on Matthew 9:35-10:8

In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus’ healing ministry is particularly crucial to his identity as Messiah. In Matthew 4, Jesus “goes public” by calling his first disciples and “proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.” Matthew goes on to report that “his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics, and he cured them.” After the Sermon on the Mount (chapters 5-7), Jesus continues to heal. He cleanses a leper, heals the centurion’s servant, and restores Peter’s mother-in-law. Later, he heals the demoniacs, a paralytic, the leader’s daughter and the woman with the issue of blood, two blind men, and a person who was mute. Jesus especially heals the poor, the destitute, the outcasts, the marginalized, though he does not refrain from healing the rich or powerful who earnestly come to him. The healing of the sick is, for Matthew, one of the primary ways in which Jesus demonstrates the truth that the “good news of the kingdom” has come. It is how Jesus reveals the compassion of God.

“Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness” (10:1). This passage, often seen as a kind of “commissioning” of the apostles, demonstrates that Jesus’ followers are called to imitate his works of compassion and justice. After the text names the apostles, it says that they were “sent out” (from the same Greek word as the noun “apostle”) to proclaim the good news by their acts of healing and ministry among the people of Israel. Like Jesus himself, the disciples are called to minister especially among those people who had been marginalized by their society: the ritually unclean, the spiritually and mentally embattled, the desperate, the lepers, even, it seems, the dead. Embedded in their mission is their utter dependence on the hospitality of others; Jesus is clear that there are no profits to be had in the process of becoming a faithful disciple.

Throughout his gospel, Matthew details the many ways that Jesus attends to the bodily needs of the people around him. The good news is not a spiritualized abstraction, but rather a new reality that Jesus graciously offers to the sick and the poor. And Jesus calls his followers to do the same, in his name. As Jesus indicates, this work is both gift and responsibility. Jesus demands that his disciples go to the forgotten and marginalized places in society to bring a loving word and a healing touch, laboring tirelessly to bring health, hope and life to all in need.

By Chris Liu-Beers, Program Associate, NC Council of Churches

Pastoral Reflection on Matthew 9:35-10:8

Jesus went about the cities and villages proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom as recorded by Matthew. In chapter four, he reminds us that Jesus began His public ministry after His baptism and temptation experience preaching: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The good news of Jesus began with a call to the admission of sin and the acceptance of the grace of forgiveness. When the paralytic was lowered into the presence of Jesus, Mark records that Jesus’ first words were, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” After demonstrating that the priority of “The Son of Man” was “to seek and to save that which was lost,” Jesus then said to the paralytic, “I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home.”

After the priority of forgiveness, it seems the next most important good news kingdom mission of Jesus to the poor and to all peoples was health and wholeness, “To Cure Every Disease.” David reminds us of that ranking of priorities when he said, “Bless the Lord, O my soul and do not forget all his benefits, Who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases.” The compassion of Jesus drove Him to heal “every disease and every sickness… of the harassed and helpless.” Jesus was and is good news for “the whole person, in the whole community with the whole church.”

Earlier, Jesus had asked his disciples to follow him. He had promised to make them “fishers of men,” servants, co-laborers, harvest partners, to introduce others to himself and his kingdom of forgiveness, healing, and wholeness. Now our text reveals Jesus casting the vision through his healing interactions with the crowd for his disciples to confirm, that the harvest is overwhelming but the laborers are few, pray for laborers. Next, we see Jesus answering their prayer. They, the disciples, would be the first to fulfill the prayer for laborers. He sent them to “…go proclaim the good news, the kingdom of heaven has come near. Cure the sick . . .” The disciples scattered to extend the kingdom ministry of Jesus of the good news of forgiveness and salvation and healing.

Today, we hear the same call upon each of us as did those disciples, that we proclaim the good news, . . . “the kingdom of heaven has come near. Cure the sick. . .” The first night of the resurrection, Jesus commanded, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” You and I are the laborers prayed for and sought, we are the “sent ones” to continue the healing ministry of Jesus!

Equal access to health care is not only a desperate justice issue for this nation to address and provide, it is a calling of God to the called out and “sent ones” to continue the healing ministry of Jesus. From the pulpit to the pew, we must ask, “what can I do to make a difference in gaining equal health care access for all people?” We can share our passion for “equal access to healthcare” with out Senators and Congressmen from this state. We can urge our state and county legislators to provide adequate funding
for Medicaid. We can learn the positions of our presidential candidates and the platforms of their parties regarding “equal access to healthcare” and help form those directions by letter writing, conversations and networking with justice structures such as the N.C. Council of Churches. We are always sent to address the roots of injustice and disparity, not simply the fruits and symptoms.

But until we see new initiatives of justice for the healthcare for the poor, we the church must be involved in the policy making ministry of healing as followers of “The Healer.” Following are examples of “love in action” health ministries of churches and individual disciples:

In the Raleigh – Durham area there are at least seven “faith based” or other non-profit free primary care health clinics. There are others throughout the state.

In Pembroke there is a faith based “Healing Lodge” ministry. Christian leaders gathered to deal with a health crisis in the county in 2001 and made a commitment to address that and other health needs. We formed a wellness/crisis health ministry dealing with addiction, sexually transmitted diseases, homelessness, domestic violence/child abuse and suicide prevention. We have a parish nurse program to access health care for the poor, the uninsured, the underserved and the non-served. We also have a “Spiritual Connections” program to equip people in local churches to become informed health outreach volunteers.

In the Pembroke area, a faith based task force is at work to establish a long term residential alcohol/drug recovery center, bringing together a cross section of professional disciplines and the church to enable the therapeutic recovery community to provide a healing/recovery center ministry.

In many churches, emergency aid funds buy medicines and pay for doctor visits. The churches also advocate for persons of the church and in the larger community to help gain governmental or private insurance for those served.

Many churches have health clinics/screenings and reach many of the unserved and underserved with awareness of illnesses and assistance in gaining medical services for those in need.

Many churches have special emphasis on praying for the sick and infirm, often anointing with oil.

Many churches provide transportation to medical facilities.

When pastors and church leaders serve persons who are uninsured, underinsured, medically unserved or underserved, it is not difficult to gain a passion for “equal access to healthcare.” To be sent by Jesus to continue his ministry of healing will make us who have insurance and adequate healthcare determined to pray and to act to assure “equal access to healthcare” for all.

By Rev. Robert Mangum (Pembroke), Pastor, Hickory Grove United Methodist Church, Clio, SC

 

 

Worship Aids about Access to Healthcare

Responsive Reading

Beloved Church, hear today these words of Scripture: “God consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction. For just as the sufferings of Christ are abundant for us, so also our consolation is abundant through Christ” (II Corinthians 1:4-5). As we gather on this day in the name of that Christ who both suffered for us and consoles us, we remember the nearly 46 million Americans who lack health care coverage. As God has consoled us, let us dedicate ourselves to consoling those who long for health care coverage with our prayers, with our loving service and with our work to solve their suffering. Come, let us worship the God of our consolation with our hearts and our hands, our lips and our lives.

God of Life, we pray this day for those whose dying is hastened by lack of access to adequate health care.

God of Love, we pray this day for the millions of people who do not have health care coverage, that their pain and anxiety will be relieved and that our hearts will be moved to stand with them.

God of Justice, we pray this day that our nation will work as one to see that all people have the health care they need.

God of the Weak, we pray this day for those who are too young, too sick, too ashamed, too discouraged to speak out for themselves and call for care.

God of Power, we pray that all who are in positions of leadership will work together to provide health care to all.

God of Mercy, we pray for those whose suffering is unrelieved by care and for ourselves that we will work with others to assure care for all.

God of All, you have made us in your image. Help us to reflect your goodness. Amen.

(adapted from Cover the Uninsured Week, “Materials for Christian Prayer and Study,” http://covertheuninsured.org/materials/files/2006/InterfaithChristian.pdf)

Prayer of Confession

Eternal God, we praise you for giving us life and calling us into community to care for each other. We acknowledge that we have failed to care for every member of our human family, and have not ensured that all may receive the health care they need for the life that you intend. Forgive us for hearts that have been slow to feel another’s pain, for hands that have been still when caring touch was needed, and for voices that have remained silent while millions suffer for lack of health care. In Christ’s name, Amen.

(adapted from “Interfaith Litany of Prayer and Reflection,” www.uhcan.org/faith/worship_resources/interfaith_litany.htm)

Alternate Prayer of Confession

Loving God, we come to you this day confessing that we have not always loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are aware of people suffering for lack of health care coverage, yet we pass by on the other side. We know there are children who struggle to grow and learn with untreated health problems, yet we pass by on the other side. Families are crushed by medical bills and other financial burdens, yet we pass by on the other side. When we encounter troubling situations that we don’t know how to fix, we are tempted to pass by on the other side. Stop us in our tracks, O God, and open our hearts so that we are not afraid to get involved in meeting the needs of those who are being ignored. Make our hearts bold and loving and send us, in the name of your Son, to go and do likewise. Amen.

(adapted from Cover the Uninsured Week, “Materials for Christian Prayer and Study,” http://covertheuninsured.org/materials/files/2006/InterfaithChristian.pdf)

For Justice

Prayer of Confession

Eternal God, we praise you for giving us life and calling us into community to care for each other. We acknowledge that we have failed to care for every member of our human family, and have not ensured that all may receive the health care they need for the life that you intend. Forgive us for hearts that have been slow to feel another’s pain, for hands that have been still when caring touch was needed, and for voices that have remained silent while millions suffer for lack of health care. In Christ’s name, Amen.

(adapted from “Interfaith Litany of Prayer and Reflection,” www.uhcan.org/faith/worship_resources/interfaith_litany.htm)

Alternate Prayer of Confession

Loving God, we come to you this day confessing that we have not always loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are aware of people suffering for lack of health care coverage, yet we pass by on the other side. We know there are children who struggle to grow and learn with untreated health problems, yet we pass by on the other side. Families are crushed by medical bills and other financial burdens, yet we pass by on the other side. When we encounter troubling situations that we don’t know how to fix, we are tempted to pass by on the other side. Stop us in our tracks, O God, and open our hearts so that we are not afraid to get involved in meeting the needs of those who are being ignored. Make our hearts bold and loving and send us, in the name of your Son, to go and do likewise. Amen.

(adapted from Cover the Uninsured Week, “Materials for Christian Prayer and Study,” http://covertheuninsured.org/materials/files/2006/InterfaithChristian.pdf)

For Justice

God, Sovereign over all, you judge kings and presidents and make nations tremble. Pour out your Spirit of justice upon the leaders of our state and nation, that they may pursue policies that benefit all the people.

Too often Congress is the handmaiden of the powerful business interests or the instrument for furthering personal gain. Remind our leaders that you keep company with the poor and that when they oppress the poor, when they deny the basic economic human rights of the people, when they “eat the people as they eat bread,” that they are oppressing you.

Great Advocate, help us make our urgent and just case for education, universal healthcare, jobs at a living wage, and housing to this nation so that no person is discarded by the public school system, stranded by the medical system, exploited by employers, or dies homeless on the streets.

Great and powerful God, as you have visited this nation with your abundance, so also visit it with your justice. Sovereign of the universe, hear our prayer and answer. Amen.

(from Rev. Noelle Damico, “Prayers,” www.universityofthepoor.org/schools/theology/prayers/March_2003_prayers.htm)

Prayer for Health and Healing

Gracious God,
There is little we take more for granted than our own good health. It often takes the loss of that blessing to make us realize our ever so fragile being, our responsibility for maintaining our good health and the good health of others. Carelessness in this pursuit is a recipe for personal disaster.

For many, insurance — whether public or personal — means making access to health care easily available and the maintenance of one’s good health an individual task. For far too many others, however, even the most basic access is absent, and the right we all deserve to proper health care remains an unreachable dream.

May the future and our shared ideas of a more perfect world inspire each of us to commit ourselves to maintain our own good health and the health of those dear to us. May we likewise commit our efforts towards a society within which all— rich and poor alike — have access to proper health care.

Finally, may we as a society have the foresight to devote adequate resources to those on the front lines of medical research, who seek the cure and prevention of illness and disease. Amen.

(adapted from “Prayer for Health and Healing,” www.uhcan.org/faith/worship_resources/prayers.htm)

Suggested Hymns about Access to Healthcare

O Christ, the Healer
United Methodist Hymnal 265
Presbyterian Hymnal 380
Chalice Hymnal (Disciples of Christ) 503
New Century Hymnal (UCC) 175

Why Has God Forsaken Me?
Presbyterian Hymnal 406

Jesus’ Hands Were Kind Hands
Moravian Book of Worship 578
Baptist Hymnal 477
United Methodist Hymnal 273

Have Thine Own Way
Baptist Hymnal 294
African Methodist Episcopal 345
Christian Methodist Episcopal 125
Chalice Hymnal (Disciples of Christ) 588
United Methodist Hymnal 382

Healer of Our Every Ill
Gather Comprehensive (Catholic) 882

We Yearn, O Christ, for Wholeness
New Century Hymnal (UCC) 179

Word of God, Come Down on Earth
United Methodist Hymnal 182
The Hymnal 1982 (Episcopal) 633

Quotes about Access to Healthcare

Of all forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

From the dawn of human history God has created loving souls and blessed each with the imago dei – the very image and likeness of God. By grace God endows those in the health care professions with the means and methods of healing. Only through a just system of health care can Jesus’ promise of life abundant (John 10:10b) be visited upon all persons.
Bob Edgar

To be without health insurance in this country means to be without access to medical care. But health is not a luxury, nor should it be the sole possession of a privileged few. We are all created b’tzelem elohim — in the image of God — and this makes each human life as precious as the next. By ‘pricing out’ a portion of this country’s population from health care coverage, we mock the image of God and destroy the vessels of God’s work.
Rabbi Alexander Schindler

Every person has the right to adequate health care. This right flows from the sanctity of human life and the dignity that belongs to all persons, who are made in the image of God… Our call for health care reform is rooted in the biblical call to heal the sick and to serve ‘the least of these,’ the priorities of justice and the principle of the common good. The existing patterns of health care in the United States do no meet the minimal standard of social justice and the common good.
U.S. Catholic Bishops, 1993

The health of a society is truly measured by the quality of its concern and care for the health of its members… We believe that health is a fundamental human right which has as its prerequisites social justice and equality and that it should be equally available and accessible to all.
Imam Sa’dullah Khan

Vignette about Access to Healthcare

For the Want of $2,500

One morning, early, I journeyed from my home in a North Carolina border county across the state line into a rural South Carolina area to provide transportation for family members to visit their mother some forty to fifty miles away in a regional hospital. Upon stopping at the family home, I noticed a man with an open wound at his left eye on the porch of the old farm house. Soon another vehicle stopped, and the man got in to travel to a nearby town to work at a tire sales garage.

When the son and his girlfriend got into my car to travel to the hospital to see their mom, I began to ask questions about the man on the porch. He was the uncle of the son, and the wound was caused by a malignant tumor forcing the displacement of the eye and blindness. Further, he believed that he needed $2,500 up front for the necessary surgery, and without the surgery he would die within two years. He was well into the first year of that count-down when I became aware of this. I also learned that the uncle was an alcoholic.

Immediately after the hospital visit that day, the church outreach worker and I went to see the uncle where he worked and invited him to meet with us and the tribal chief at his office so we could discuss his medical condition. After he completed his work day, we took him to the office. We learned about his many visits to premier medical facilities and the urgency to operate on the terminal tumor before it was too late. But for the want of $2,500 it had not been done!

Unfortunately, the real cost of the surgery turned out to be much more; $2,500 was a woefully inaccurate estimate. We advocated for the uncle and got a university medical center to agree to provide the surgery for $5,500. That hospital and medical team performed the successful surgery in 2006, removing the eye and tumor and planting metal studs for the placement of the prosthesis. The hospital is using a foundation to cover expenses as well as assistance from newly acquired Social Security Disability coverage or SSI Medicaid coverage. The hospital social work department has given leadership in networking systems for benefits.

The church discovered a man dying, working for $20 per day with no benefits, no health insurance, no Social Security being withheld, a man without hope. To him, $2,500—much less $5,500—was like a million dollars, and he gave up. He had not followed through with paperwork to seek assistance and was handling the despair with alcohol. What if God’s people from the church and tribe had not been there to care and to put “love into action”?

After the church had committed itself to find the thousands of dollars needed for the surgery, a man who attended the church monthly, unaware of the decision to proceed with the surgery, put $5,000 undesignated in the offering one fourth Sunday morning. “To God be the glory, great things He hath done!” The total cost to the emergency aid fund of the church for surgery and follow-up trips to the distant hospital is about $8,000.

The uncle is the tragic story of the millions of people in the United States without medical insurance, without adequate education or employment, without friends and advocates, and whose medical, social, and spiritual problems are often compounded by addiction. God’s people must not only care, but act in love for individual healings and systemic health justice. “For the want of $2,500” a man almost died, but he did not because God’s people demonstrated “love in action.”

By Rev. Robert Mangum (Pembroke), Pastor, Hickory Grove United Methodist Church, Clio, SC

Contacts & Resources for Access to Healthcare

www.ncjustice.org/?q=node/25
The North Carolina Health Access Coalition is a group of individuals and organizations representing consumers. The Coalition works to educate the public about health care reform options, and enables consumers to become active participants in developing health policy for the state and nation. They support a universal health care system that provides affordable, high quality, comprehensive, and accessible health care services, with strong measures to control rising health care costs. The Coalition believes that everyone in North Carolina should have access to comprehensive health services regardless of age, sex, race, disability, religion, ethnicity, location, or economic or health status.

www.healthandwholeness.org
Partners in Health and Wholeness, an initiative of the North Carolina Council of Churches, is designed to bridge issues of faith and health together. In order to live out the example of Jesus Christ – someone who dedicated his life to healing the sick, guiding the lost, comforting the downcast, and even raising the dead – our program seeks to provide people of faith with the tools necessary to lead healthier, more fulfilling lives. By improving the health and well-being of people of faith, we hope to impact the larger community and ultimately reduce the health care burden on our state.

www.nciom.org
North Carolina Institute of Medicine is an independent, non-profit organization that serves as a nonpolitical source of health policy analysis and advice in North Carolina. The NC General Assembly chartered the NC IOM in 1983 to provide balanced, nonpartisan information on complex and often controversial health issues in our state. Their website features numerous reports and resources designed to provide relevant, easy-to-read information concerning the state of health in North Carolina.

Facts and Reflection about Access to Healthcare

  1. The North Carolina Council of Churches continues to take a strong stand on the right of all people, and all North Carolinians, to have equal access to healthcare. It is an issue of social justice. For over two decades, the Council has affirmed that “Our concern is especially great for those most vulnerable in our society: the poor, children, people of color, and the elderly… [We call] for a national health plan that would guarantee universal coverage for health care, coupled with effective cost control, broad-based and equitable financing, and assured quality of services.”
  2. As of 2015, over one million North Carolinians are uninsured. North Carolina’s uninsured population of eleven percent secures the state a position within the top ten of states with the highest rates of uninsured residents. Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, North Carolina’s uninsured rate has fallen from seventeen percent to the current eleven percent.
  3. Children’s health coverage is at an all-time high in North Carolina with ninety-six percent of North Carolina’s children boasting health coverage. Almost half of children with health coverage receive some form of public insurance with ninety-three percent of those covered by Medicaid.
  4. Since 2009 the rate of uninsured children in NC has dropped by nearly half from 8.1 percent to 4.4 percent. This success is due in part to an increase in adult enrolment within the ACA marketplace where eligible, uninsured children are identified through their parent’s enrolment. However, even with this success six percent of low-income children still do not have health insurance despite income based eligibility.
  5. Despite North Carolina’s decreasing rate of uninsured persons, certain groups still face barriers to obtaining coverage. North Carolina has one of the highest rates of uninsured Hispanic adults at a staggering thirty percent compared to the uninsured rate of white adults at only ten percent.
  6. North Carolina’s lower-income, rural residents are at greater risk of disease and injury than their urban counterparts. A majority of Medicaid recipients in North Carolina live in the rural areas of the state. While rural residents benefit greatly from increased rates of coverage, rural residents face additional barriers to care. North Carolina’s health care providers disproportionately favor urban communities causing rural residents to face higher costs for care and logistical challenges for accessing care.
  7. The North Carolina Institute of Medicine contends, “People who are uninsured are more likely to delay care and less likely to receive preventive services, primary care, or chronic care management. As a result, they are more likely to end up in the hospital with preventable health problems and more likely to die prematurely. When the uninsured do seek care, some of the costs of their care are shifted to the insured population.”

Sources

Last Updated: September 26, 2017