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A total of 89.6 million Americans under age 65 were without health insurance at some point during 2006 and 2007, according to a Families USA study released Sept. 20.
The study, Wrong Direction: One Out of Three Americans Are Uninsured, further found that four out of five (79.3 percent) of those reported to be without health coverage were in working families.
"This is a story of working people, not a story of people looking for a handout," Families USA Executive Director Ron Pollack said at a Sept. 20 press conference to release the study.
Pollack said the fact that 70 percent of the uninsured had full-time jobs indicates that they did "not have health insurance offered in their workplace."
The number of Americans younger than 65 years old without health insurance during a two-year period rose from 72.5 million in the 1999-2000 period to 89.6 million in the 2006-2007 period.
Rising health care premiums are affecting employer and employee decisions about health insurance, the study said. Employers, especially small businesses, are increasingly deciding not to offer health coverage to their employees, and employees are finding that they cannot afford to pay the high premium rates with their earnings.
Wages did not keep pace with increasing premium rates, according to the report. Wages rose 11.6 percent between 2000 and 2006, while premium rates for employer-based health insurance increased by 73.8 percent.
Families USA Director of Health Policy Kathleen Stoll told BNA that 70 percent of full-time workers not having health insurance "leads to the conclusion that a lot of employers do not offer health coverage, or that offers are too expensive for workers, or that there are no offers to cover dependents or spouses."
Families USA, a nonprofit organization that works toward high quality and affordable health care, commissioned the Lewin Group to analyze data from the Census Bureau's current population survey and survey of income and program participation.
The Census Bureau reported Aug. 28 that there were a total of 47 million Americans without health insurance in 2006 (167 DLR D-15, 8/29/07). The study from Families USA looked at the Census data to identify the number of Americans under 65 years old that were without health coverage at any point in 2006 and 2007.
Among the 89.6 million uninsured Americans, nearly two-thirds (63.9 percent) were without health insurance for at least six months, the study found. Half of this 89.6 million (50.2 percent) were uninsured for more than nine months. The study found the number of states that had more than one-third of their nonelderly population living without health insurance at some point had increased from nine states in 1999 and 2000 to a total of 20 states and the District of Columbia in 2006 and 2007.
Texas had the highest insured rate (45.5 percent). New Mexico (44.3 percent), Arizona (41.8 percent), California (40.5 percent), and Florida (40.1 percent) also had rates greater than 40 percent of total state population under 65 years old.
Call to Action
Speakers at the press conference called for the Bush administration to find solutions that help employers provide health insurance to working Americans.
Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), chair of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, said the Bush administration "acts as if there is no problem" and has not proposed a solution.
Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) called for a "comprehensive" approach. She said the Bush administration should start by reauthorizing the State Children's Health Insurance Program whose funding expires Sept. 30.
Stabenow added that there needs to be a focus on how to limit emergency room visits that increase overall health care costs for everyone.
The study may be accessed at:
http://www.familiesusa.org/assets/pdfs/wrong-direction.pdf.
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