The 'Quiet Crisis'

Known as the "quiet crisis," the number of people with health insurance who might be bankrupted by a medical crisis is growing. We have heard a lot about the 47 million without any health insurance, but we've heard less about the tens of millions of middle-class Americans who are underinsured. More than half of underinsured adults go without needed medical care. Even while scrimping on care, more than half of America's underinsured have debt due to medical expenses.

Too many Americans are locked into jobs or stopped from opening their own businesses because of worries about affording or maintaining health insurance. The threat of rising health insurance premiums and the prospect of losing coverage altogether has become a constant concern for far too many American families. In fact, nearly 9 in 10 Americans (87%) are concerned about health or medical costs going up. And 8 in 10 adults say they are dissatisfied with the "total cost of health care in this country."