(Circulation. 2000;101:e9048.)
© 2000 American Heart Association, Inc.
Cardiovascular News |
Cardiovascular News
Numbers of Uninsured Increases
Between 1988 and 1998, the rolls of the uninsured increased by 1 million persons each year, according to a recent study released by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. By 1998, the number of uninsured Americans had reached 43.9 million.
In the early 1990s, the decreases were attributable to fewer businesses providing healthcare insurance to their employees. However, by the late 1990s, welfare reform caused many Americans to lose their Medicaid coverage, which dropped millions more from the insured rolls.
Most of the 44 million Americans who lost their healthcare coverage were younger than 65 years of age. "The uninsured are predominantly workers and their families, many of whom have low incomes," the report stated. "About one-third of the poor and near-poor lack health insurance coverage."
Children make up nearly one-fifth of the uninsured. Almost all of these children are eligible for coverage through Medicaid in the State Children’s Health Insurance Program but are not enrolled. Their parents make up almost another one-fifth of the uninsured.
Three-fourths of the uninsured are part of a family where at least one member works full time, and another 10% are in families where there is at least one part-time worker. Only 16% of the uninsured live in families where no one is employed.
The high cost of premiums is the top reason cited by these workers for
being uninsured. "The employee cost for family coverage is higher in
businesses that employ mainly low-wage workers than in those with
mostly high-wage workers,"