1.4 million lost their medical coverage in '01
(While Bush preaches to the UN,"we want everyone to have a good life like we do", millions are out of work, millions more have no medical coverage, go hungry have no hope, are in danger of losing their pensions and social security benefits)
By Julie Appleby USA TODAY
A struggling economy and higher health insurance costs caused 1.4 million more people to go without medical coverage last year, bringing the total uninsured to 41.2 million, figures to be released today by the Census Bureau show.
Those numbers — representing 14.6% of the population — are lower than the peak of 44.3 million uninsured in 1998, but observers say the weak economy will cause the number of uninsured to continue to rise this year.
The growth in the uninsured, while not unexpected, adds political and economic pressure to federal and state governments at a time when potential solutions are limited by tight budgets.
No health insurance
The five states with the highest and lowest percentage of people without health insurance for 2000-2001:
Highest
1. Texas: 23.2
2. New Mexico: 22.4
3. Louisiana: 18.7
4. Oklahoma: 18.6
5. Florida: 17.6
Lowest
1. Rhode Island: 7.6
1. Wisconsin: 7.6
3. Minnesota: 8.1
4. New Hampshire: 8.9
5. Pennsylvania: 9.0
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
States will be hit with higher costs as more residents seek help through already-strapped Medicaid programs, while the federal government will be pushed to offer tax credits or expand existing government health programs to help those without coverage.
The Census Bureau recalculated upward its year 2000 estimate based on new population figures. Without that change, the year-to-year increase would have been 2.5 million.
"Four factors — much higher health care costs, employers passing on more of those costs to workers, unemployment growth and state cutbacks in Medicaid programs — all but guarantee that the number of uninsured people will skyrocket in the next few years," says Ron Pollack of the advocacy group Families USA in Washington, D.C.
Last year, a 0.6% increase in the number of people enrolled in government health programs helped offset the rise in the uninsured. The Census found a 1% drop in the number of people covered by insurance through their employers.
"The big message here is that, if not for Medicaid and the children's program, the story would have been much worse," says Len Nichols, a health economist at the Center for Studying Health System Change, a non-partisan research group. Other findings:
Of households earning less than $25,000 annually, 23% lacked health insurance.
Adults ages 18 to 24 were least likely of any age group to have coverage, with 28% lacking coverage.
Hispanics were less likely than non-Hispanic whites to be covered by health insurance, with 66.8% having insurance, compared with 90% of whites. Among blacks, the coverage rate of 81% was the same as that for Asians.
Families with incomes above $75,000 made up nearly 58% of the increase in the uninsured, although they make up only 30% of the population. Experts said that income group is most likely to have coverage and, therefore, in times of recession or job cutbacks, most likely to lose it. |
