Health insurance in the United States

In the United States, health insurance is any program that protect against for medical expenses, whether through privately purchased insurance policy, social insurance or a  social welfare  program funded by the govt. Synonyms for this usage include "health coverage," "health care coverage" and "health benefits."

More technical sense, the term is used to describe any form of the insurance that provides protection against the expenses of medical services. This usage includes private insurance plans and social insurance programs such as Medicare, which pools resources and spreads the financial risk associated with major medical cost the entire population to protect  all people, as well as social welfare programs such as Medicaid and the State Children's insurance Program, which provide assistance to people who can't afford the health coverage.

In addition to medical expense insurance policy, "health insurance" may also refer to the insurance covering  disability or custodial care requirements. Different health insurance plans provides different levels of financial protection widely, with more than 40 percent of insured individuals reporting that their plans do not adequately meet their needs as of 2007.

The share of Americans with health insurance policy has been steadily declining since at least 2000. As of 2010 just under 84% populations of Americans had some form of the health insurance cover, which means that more than 49 million people went without protection for at least part of the year. Declining rates of protection and under insurance are largely attributable to rising insurance costs. As the pool of the people with private health insurance has shrunk, Public programs now cover 31% of the population and are responsible for 44% of health care costing. The public insurance programs tend to cover more vulnerable people with greater health care needs.