From SinglePayerNow's Media team:
(from SF Gate: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/02/BUFL16QRAO.DTL&type=printable)
500,000 lost health insurance, report says
Victoria Colliver, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, April 2, 2009
About 500,000 working-age Californians have lost health insurance since the start of the recession, and an additional 600,ooo could lose theirs by 2012 even if the economy fully recovers, according to a UC Berkeley report.
The report, released Wednesday by the university's Center for Labor Research and Education, estimated that since November 2007 - the designated start of the economic decline - and February of this year, about 3.7 million more American adults became uninsured, including a half million in California.
About 1.95 million Californians were out of work in February, compared with 824,000 at the same time in 2008, for a state unemployment rate of 10.5 percent, according to the most recent figures from the Employment Development Department. Because many employers sponsor insurance coverage, a job loss often means the loss of health coverage.
Berkeley researchers considered their report's estimate to be conservative. The numbers account for workers who join their spouse's plan or find alternative coverage.
"This recession has a bigger rate of underemployed than we have seen in previous recessions, meaning people are involuntarily working part time which can also lead to insurance loss," said Ken Jacobs, chairman of the Berkeley center and co-author of the report. "It's possible the situation is far worse."
The report paints a bleak picture for the future if the current trends of increasing health premiums and decreasing employer-backed coverage continue.
The number of California employers offering health insurance has eroded in recent years, falling from 61.7 percent in 2000 to 58.6 percent in 2007, lower than the national average of 64.2 percent.
Assuming a continued 7.5 percent annual increase in employer premium costs, the report predicted the share of working Californians without employer-sponsored health coverage would increase 2.5 percent by 2012.
Even if the economy fully recovers and employment rates return to pre-recession levels, the number of uninsured working-age adults in California would increase 1.4 percent, according to the report. That translates into 600,000 more uninsured Californians, or 4 million Americans, by 2012.
"Unless there's some sort of policy intervention, we won't see a real recovery from where we are right now," Jacobs said. "Given population growth and this ongoing decline in coverage rates, the number of uninsured would actually continue to rise."
The Berkeley report relied on research from the Kaiser Family Foundation's Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured as well as data from the U.S. Census' Current Population Survey.
Another report underscoring the growing number of jobless and uninsured in California will be released today. That report, by Families USA, a liberal-leaning Washington, D.C., group that pushes for health reform, found 12.1 million Californians were uninsured for some period of time in 2007-2008. That's more than 1 out of every 3 residents under 65 years of age, or 37.4 percent.
jobless and uninsured
The UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education estimates a large number of Californians have lost their health insurance coverage due to the recession. Among the findings:
-- An estimated 500,000 working-age Californians have lost coverage since the start of the recession in November 2007.
-- Employer-sponsored coverage is expected to fall 2.4 percent in California by 2012, increasing the number of uninsured by 1.4 percent.
Source: "No Recovery in Sight: Health Coverage for Working-Age Adults in the United States and California," UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education.
E-mail Victoria Colliver at vcolliver@sfchronicle.com.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/02/BUFL16QRAO.DTL
This article appeared on page C - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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2) NPR's Morning Edition, link to story with audio: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102593259:
Cancer Debt: The Hidden Costs Beyond Insurance, by Joanne Silberner
lede: "Morning Edition, April 2, 2009 · Having health insurance is no guarantee that cancer won't bankrupt you. Even people with insurance can run up large debts for cancer care, according to a new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the American Cancer Society..."
3) And yet another health insurance related story on the same program, link to story with audio: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102618109
HEALTH CARE
Women Pay The Price For Health Insurance, by Sarah Varney [note: she's a KQED reporter]
excerpt: "...Despite concerns over its fairness, the individual health insurance market is likely to see an influx of applicants, especially in the current economy with employers cutting back on health benefits and laying off workers..."
You can comment on NPR stories - see both the "community" section on NPR's web site as well as the Contact Us link on story pages.
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