COVERAGE: 46.3 Million Uninsured in 2008

The Census Bureau released its estimates of the number and characteristics of the uninsured for 2008 today. Despite the start of the downturn, the number of uninsured has only increased from 45.7 million in 2007 to 46.3 million in 2008, an increase of about 700,000 new uninsured individuals. The share of the population that is uninsured stayed stable at 15.4 percent.

Remember these figures are from March 2008 -- before the recession and financial crisis hit with full force.

A key finding from the Bureau is that the number of people covered by some government program (Medicare, Medicaid, etc...) increased by 4.7 million, while the number with private coverage (either through an employer or purchased on the individual market) decreased by 1 million. So, while uninsurance in general did not rise dramatically, it was our increasingly strained public programs that had to pick up the slack and keep people from joining the rolls of the uninsured.

Another important finding is that the number of uninsured children is at an all-time low since 1987 (when they first started gathering data) of 7.3 million or 9.9 percent of children. In fact, more than half of the increase in Medicaid coverage can be attributed to children gaining coverage through Medicaid or SCHIP.  

But, the most interesting finding of this report is who it is that lost coverage. Perhaps indicative of the start of the recession, the new uninsureds were most likely to be:

• Members of a family unit
• Caucasian
• Between 45 and 64 years old
• People born in the United States
• From the West
• In or near large cities, particularly residing in smaller cites or suburbs
• Earning more than $75,000 a year
• Employed in part-time jobs

The takeaway for me from all of this new information is that the people who are most likely to be newly uninsured look eerily like my parents. People who have worked hard, had long careers, but whose employers can no longer afford to provide coverage or who can no longer afford to pay out of pocket for their care.

While there is both good and bad news from the census report, we know that many more people are struggling now, and the number of uninsured has risen along with unemployment. One shudders to think what the numbers from 2009 will look like... But with health reform on track, we can hope that the numbers start falling, at long last, in the not-too-distant future.