The health insurance crisis in the United States: lack of access and the ripple effect.

America's health care system is in crisis. Many individuals are not offered health insurance or cannot afford it, thereby increasing the number of uninsured who have no stable source of care other than the emergency room. In turn, the costs associated with those who lack health insurance ripple to providers who end up funding a proportion of uncompensated care, thereby financially crippling the bottom line. The lack of access to proper care experienced by the uninsured also has a downstream effect on the insured population, threatening the quality of and access to health care for all Americans.