As a disabled veteran, Linda C. Jones has pretty good health-care benefits. That does not stop her from worrying about all the people who don't.

At an AARP forum in Richmond yesterday, Jones and about 70 others heard various scenarios of how the United States could move toward universal health coverage.

"In the Petersburg area, you have a lot of low-income families," said Jones, a member of the Virginia Organizing Project's Petersburg chapter. "Access to health care is a problem. Most of them do not make enough to buy into health care."

AARP, in an initiative it is calling "Divided We Fail," is urging people to vote for candidates who support a bipartisan solution to universal health coverage. AARP lobbies for the interests of older Americans, many of whom have reached age 65 and have insurance through government-funded Medicare.

Bill Kallio, AARP Virginia director, said many people nearing retirement age are staying in jobs they don't like or can't physically do well anymore because they need the job-provided health insurance. Kallio said they shouldn't count on Medicare covering all their needs even when they do become eligible.

"I talk to people about the fact that if all they have is Medicare for the rest of their lives -- they can't afford the supplemental insurance, so they have to save -- they should be prepared to spend between $200,000 and $300,000 out of their pockets for things that won't be covered by Medicare," he said.

Kallio said Medicare can't be addressed in isolation from the health-care system. "We need to fix it for everyone if we are going to fix it for Medicare beneficiaries."

Reports out this week highlight ongoing problems with health-care access, coverage and affordability in the United States.

A Commonwealth Fund study in the journal Health Affairs suggested that the number of people who are underinsured is growing. These are people who have health insurance but it's inadequate, leaving them with high out-of-pocket medical expenses and services not covered.

Another group, Families USA, yesterday released results of a survey indicating many states' insurance regulators do not protect people from health insurance discrimination.

Health economist Len Nichols, who moderated the forum yesterday, said the debate over universal coverage has focused primarily on getting people access to care. That's not enough, he said.

"You can't reform health-care financing and access without thinking about how to reform delivery systems," said Nichols. "If we don't get far better at making our system more efficient, to give us more health value per dollar, it doesn't matter what you are doing on coverage because none of us will be able to afford it. We have to link coverage and costs."