NYT editorial: A Sobering Census Report: Bleak Findings on Health Insurance

[DeepModem Mom]

A Sobering Census Report: Bleak Findings on Health Insurance
Published: August 29, 2007

The Census Bureau’s report on the state of American health insurance was as disturbing as its statistics on poverty and income. The bureau reported a large increase in the number of Americans who lack health insurance, data that ought to send an unmistakable message to Washington: vigorous action is needed to reverse this alarming and intractable trend.

The number of uninsured Americans has been rising inexorably over the past six years as soaring health care costs have driven up premiums, employers have scaled back or eliminated health benefits and hard-pressed families have found themselves unable to purchase insurance at a reasonable price. Last year, the number of uninsured Americans increased by a daunting 2.2 million, from 44.8 million in 2005 to 47.0 million in 2006. That scotched any hope that the faltering economic recovery would help alleviate the problem.

The main reason for the upsurge in uninsured Americans is that employment-based coverage continued to deteriorate. Indeed, the number of full-time workers without health insurance rose from 20.8 million in 2005 to 22.0 million in 2006, presumably because either the employers or the workers or both found it too costly.

Sadly, the one area where the nation had made progress — reducing the number of uninsured children — took a turn for the worse. The number of uninsured children under 18 dropped steadily and significantly from 1999 to 2004, thanks largely to an expansion in coverage of low-income children under two programs operated jointly by the states and the federal government, Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. Then last year the number of uninsured children jumped more than 600,000 to reach 8.6 million. The main reason, advocacy groups say, is that access and funding for the low-income programs became tighter while employer coverage for dependents eroded.

The challenge to the White House and Congress seems clear. The upward trend in the number of uninsured needs to be reversed because many studies have shown that people who lack health insurance tend to forgo needed care until they become much sicker and go to expensive emergency rooms for treatment. That harms their health and drives up everyone’s health care costs....

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/29/opinion/29wed2.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[eridani]

1. PNHP comments on this

Physicians for a National Health Program


Middle-Class Americans Join Ranks of Uninsured in 2006 as Private Coverage Shrinks

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 28, 2007

Contacts:
Steffie Woolhandler, M.D. [phone]
Quentin Young, MD [phone]
Don McCanne, M.D. [phone]

Number of Uninsured Swells 2.2 Million to 47 Million

15,000 Doctors: "Single Payer National Health Insurance is the Only
Solution"

Download state by state figures:
http://www.pnhp.org/uninsured2007/Uninsuredbystate2004-2006.pdf

Census Bureau Data:
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/hlthins/hlthin06.html

The U.S. Census Bureau released data today showing that the number of uninsured Americans jumped by 2.2 million in 2006 to 47.0 million people, with nearly all the increase (2.03 million) concentrated among middle-class Americans earning over $50,000 per year, according to an analysis by Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP). Strikingly, 1.4 million of the newly uninsured were in families making over $75,000 per year. An additional 600,000 were in families earning $50,000 to $75,000 per year. (The median household income in 2006 was $48,200).

"Middle income Americans are now experiencing the human suffering that comes with being uninsured. It makes any illness a potential economic and social catastrophe," said Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Physicians for a National Health Program also noted the following:

--The 2.18 million rise in the number of uninsured is the biggest jump
reported by the Census Bureau since 1992.

There are now more uninsured in the U.S.--47.0 million--than at any time since passage of Medicare/Medicaid in the mid-1960's.

93% of the increase is among middle and high income families:

Of the 2.18 million increase:

1.398 million (64% of the increase) was in >$75k family income

An additional 633,000 (29% of the increase) was among $50-$75k group

Among full time workers, the number of uninsured increased by 1.230 million (56.4% of the increase).

In Massachusetts, often cited as a model for health reform, the number of uninsured increased from 583,000 in 2005 (9.2 percent) to 657,000 in 2006 (10.4 percent of the population).

The divergence between poverty and uninsurance is relatively new and striking. Until recently, as poverty went down uninsurance fell. That has changed.

The number of uninsured children has fallen only 17 percent since SCHIP was enacted in 1997 from 10.74 million (adjusted to be comparable to current figures) to 8.66 million. The number of uninsured children rose by 611,000 between 2005 and 2006.

The doctors' group said that the only solution to the rising number of uninsured and underinsured is a single-payer national health insurance
program, publicly financed but delivered by private doctors and hospitals.

Such a program could save more than $400 billion annually in administrative waste, enough to provide high-quality coverage to all and halt the erosion of the current private system.

"We can no longer afford the waste and inefficiency, the high overhead and outrageous executive salaries of the private insurance industry" said Dr. Don McCanne, senior health policy fellow for PNHP. "Only reforms that end our reliance on defective private coverage and assure guaranteed coverage for all will work."

"The experience of other industrialized nations teaches us that high-quality, comprehensive care can be provided to all our citizens," said Dr. Quentin Young, National Coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program. "A single-payer national health insurance system has emerged as the only solution to the nation's health system debacle."

###

Physicians for a National Health Program is an organization of 15,000
American physicians advocating for non-profit national health insurance. PNHP has chapters and spokespersons across the country. For local ornational contacts, call [phone].


Physicians for a National Health Program
29 E Madison Suite 602, Chicago, IL 60602
Phone [phone] |
Fax: [phone]
www.pnhp.org |
info {at} pnhp.org

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Thanks for that additional info, eridani! nt