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Universal Health Care Coverage
The number of people with health insurance rose by 1.2 million between 2000 and 2001, to 240.9 million, but at the same time the number of uninsured rose by 1.4 million, to 41.2 million, the Commerce Department's Census Bureau reported today. Meanwhile, an estimated 14.6 percent of the population had no health insurance coverage during all of 2001, up from 14.2 percent in 2000. The number (8.5 million) and proportion (11.7 percent) of uninsured children did not change significantly.
Other highlights:
- The number and percentage of people covered by government health insurance programs rose significantly between 2000 and 2001. This resulted largely from an increase in the number (from 29.5 million to 31.6 million) and percentage (from 10.6 percent to 11.2 percent) of people covered by Medicaid.
- Although Medicaid insured 13.3 million poor people, another 10.1 million poor people had no health insurance in 2001. They represented 30.7 percent of the poor, unchanged from 2000.
- Young adults (18-to-24 years old) remained the least likely of any age group to have health insurance in 2001. Nearly 72 percent of this age group had coverage.
- Based on three-year averages, American Indians and Alaska Natives were the least likely of the major racial groups to have health insurance.
- Based on three-year averages, the proportion of people without health insurance ranged from around 7.2 percent in Rhode Island and Minnesota to around 23.2 percent in New Mexico and Texas. Based on two-year moving averages, the proportion of people without coverage fell in 14 states and rose in nine between 2000 and 2001.
- Compared with 2000, the proportion of people who had employment-based policies in their own name fell for workers employed by firms with fewer than 25 employees, but was unchanged for those employed by larger firms.
From a US Census Bureau Press Release, September 30, 2002
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- FDA News: An electronic division of Washington Business Information Inc. with news on drugs, medical devices, and biologics.
- Census Bureau Health Insurance Statistics
- Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services - HIPAA Online: Clear explanations of HIPAA's consumer protections, along with examples of how the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act applies to particular situations.
- American Association of Health Plans: Fact sheets and analyses on managed care, prenatal care, children's health insurance, diabetes, and current immunization recommendations for children and adults.
- American Health Care Reform: Advocates for singlepayer, universal coverage in America to make healthcare for all a reality.
- Cato Institute - Medical Savings Accounts
- Covering the Uninsured: A national campaign of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and twelve major national organizations to raise awareness of the challenges facing the 39 million Americans with no health insurance.
- Economic Research Initiative on the Uninsured - ERIU: The ERIU is a Robert Wood Johnson-funded research group that studies the economic causes and consequences of lacking health insurance.
- Families USA: Information for Consumers: Nonprofit advocacy organization offers many useful links to information about how to find, choose, and use quality health coverage.
- Health Care For All: Health Care For All is dedicated to making quality and affordable health care accessible to everyone - regardless of income, social or economic status.
- Health Insurance Consumer Guides: The Georgetown University Health Policy Institute offers a Consumer Guide for Getting and Keeping Health Insurance, for each state and the District of Columbia. Site also includes a newsletter and consumer alerts concerning troubled health insurers.
- Health Insurance Resource Center: Resources for the selfemployed to understand their health insurance. Includes glossary of industry terms, tips, FAQs on individual health insurance, and risk pool information.
- Physicians for a National Health Program: A single issue organization advocating a universal, comprehensive singlepayer national health care program.
- Universal Health Care Action Network: UHCAN! provides a national resource center and facilitates information sharing and the development of strategies for health care justice, that is, universal, high quality, and publicly accountable health care.
- Initial Data on Individual Market Enrollment Fail To Dispel Concerns About Health Savings Accounts (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: 9/13/04)
- Clinton Got Quick Care, Unlike Canadian Heart Patients (Cato Institute: September 8, 2004)
- Census Data Show Poverty Increased, Income Stagnated, and the Number of Uninsured Rose to a Record Level In 2003 (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: 8/27/04)
- Number of Americans Without Insurance Reaches Highest Level on Record: The number of uninsured Americans surged to 45 million in 2003, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the highest level on record. The availability of health insurance coverage under Medicaid and SCHIP was essential in a year in which employerbased coverage continued to decline. (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: August 27, 2004)
- Will Poverty, Income, and Health Insurance Coverage Improve Significantly in 2004? (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: 8/27/04)
- The Health Care Divide: Last year, Congress passed, and President Bush signed into law, legislation expanding high-deductible health insurance. (Center for American Progress: August 11, 2004)
- Health Insurance Squeeze Is Here: Documents what has happened to health insurance coverage as employers have limited access to affordable health insurance. (Center for American Progress: June 17, 2004).
- A Flawed Approach to the Uninsured: About 60 percent of the more than 43 million uninsured Americans work for or own small businesses. (Center for American Progress: May 12, 2004)
- New Retirement Medical Account Proposal Would Create Lucrative Tax Shelter And Swell Deficits, But Do Little To Help Low And ModerateIncome Seniors: Report from the liberal-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (4/12/2004).
- New Evidence of Worsening Problems: Falling Employer-Based Coverage: The United States' already-fragmented health system seems to have worsened and employers have responded by passing on health insurance costs to their employees. (Center for American Progress: April 14, 2004)
- Administration's Proposed Tax Credit For The Purchase Of Health Insurance Could Weaken Employer-Based Health Insurance (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: 4/6/04)
- Substantial Flaws in Trade Health Insurance Tax Credit Need To Be Addressed Before Consideration of an Expansion (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: 3/22/04)
- Administration’s Proposed Deduction For Long-Term Care Insurance Premiums Likely To Be Ineffective and Costly, and Of Primary Benefit To Higher-Income Individuals (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: 2/18/04)
- Prevailing Health Principles: Recently the Institute of Medicine challenged our leaders to take a principled approach to achieving universal health insurance coverage in the U.S. by 2010. The president's new budget fails to meet this challenge, offering instead proposals intended to garner more political points than new health coverage. (Center for American Progress: February 18, 2004)
- President Proposes to Make Tax Benefits of Health Savings Accounts More Lucrative for Higher-Income Individuals (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: 2/9/04)
- Mrs. Clinton Has Entered the Race: The 2004 Democratic Presidential Candidates’ Proposals to Reform Health Insurance, (Cato Policy Analysis No. 509, February 5, 2004)
- Unanswered Questions on Proposals to Cover Uninsured: The Institute of Medicine has issued a challenge to the President and Congress to ensure that every person in this country has health insurance by 2010. Will President Bush meet this challenge? (Center for American Progress: January 14, 2004)
- Two Choices for Health Care Reform (Cato Institute: June 16, 2003)
- How Many People Lack Health Insurance and for How Long? (U.S. Congressional Budget Office: May 12, 2003)
- Competitive Markets For Individual Health Insurance (Cato Institute: October 23, 2002)
- No Heath Insurance? So What? (Cato Institute: October 3, 2002)
- Health Insurance Coverage in the US: 2001 (U.S. Census Bureau: September 30, 2002)
- An Asymmetric Bias toward Government Regulation (Cato Institute: December 2001)
- The Alarming Growth in the Number of Uninsured (DrKoop.com February 22, 2000)
- The Wrong Health Care Debate (Cato Institute: August 11, 1999)
- Who Should Pick Your Health Plan? (Cato Institute: August 6, 1999)
- A Relevant Universal Coverage Proposal (Progressive Policy Institute)
- America's Achilles Heel - Job-Based Health Coverage and the Uninsured (The Century Foundation)
- From Transitional to Universal Health Coverage (Progressive Policy Institute)
- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996: Diseminates information about HIPAA including background information and compliance issues.
- Improving Access to Healthcare without Comprehensive Health Coverage Insurance: Incentives, Competition, Choice and Priorities, (Cato Institute - December 2002)
- Mental Health: The Unresolved Area of Health Care Reform (Progressive Policy Institute)
- Smart Health Care Reform: Sen. John Kerry would offer more opportunities for Americans to obtain coverage, stronger incentives for doctors to improve care and prevent mistakes, and public reforms to bolster private efforts to hold down costs and improve quality. (Progressive Policy Institute)
- Two Promising Approaches to Expanding Health Coverage (Progressive Policy Institute)