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January 2, 2008Census Data on Growing Number of Uninsured Make Clear: National Health Care Strategy Is Needed |
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From The Commonwealth Fund: Today, the Census Bureau released the latest data on the number of Americans without health insurance: in 2006, the number of uninsured rose to 47 million, from 44.8 million in 2005. If not for coverage through Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), even more children would be without coverage. In 2006, an additional 1.3 million working adults were uninsured, of which 1.2 million worked full time. Both younger adults ages 25 to 34 and older adults ages 45 to 64 experienced major increases in the number of uninsured, a sign of the difficulty of obtaining health coverage in entry-level jobs and of staying covered as older adults experience serious health problems. Those particularly affected by the loss of coverage have incomes between $25,000 and $75,000. But even among those in families earning more than $75,000, the number of uninsured grew by 1.4 million. One immediate action Congress could take is reauthorization of SCHIP, which is essential to prevent a reversal of the progress made through public health insurance programs over the last six years. In a recent Commonwealth Fund/Modern Healthcare survey, health care leaders said loud and clear that children up to 300 percent of the poverty level need to be covered by SCHIP and that the federal government can play a strong role in reforming health care overall. The SCHIP reform bills currently in Congress are an unprecedented opportunity to expand coverage and improve the quality of care for all of us, but they are only a beginning. The Commonwealth Fund is an independent foundation working toward health policy reform and a high performance health system.
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