46.6 million Americans now have no health insurance: Uninsured gap widens

Wednesday, August 30, 2006 by: NewsTarget

New census data shows that although the average American household earned more money last year, an additional 1.3 million citizens became uninsured, pushing the total number of Americans without health insurance to 46.6 million.

The percentage of uninsured in the United States in 2005 -- 15.9 percent -- was the highest since 1998, with poverty rates staying steady at 12.6 percent.

Households with incomes between $25,000 and $75,000 were hit the hardest by skyrocketing health insurance costs. 2005 saw the numbers of people with health insurance grow by 1.4 million, but the uninsured ranks also swelled by 1.3 million.

"We're going to continue to see a million-plus added to the (uninsured) rolls every year," says Kathleen Stoll, health policy director for the consumer advocacy group Families USA. Stoll says businesses will find it more and more difficult to offer health coverage to employees as insurance prices continue to rise.

"Skyrocketing health insurance costs threaten to bankrupt our economy," warns Mike Adams, consumer health advocate. "The profiteering prices of prescription drugs, combined with a near-total lack of disease prevention efforts, are creating what I call a 'disease economy' -- an economy that will soon be spending one out of every four dollars to manage diseases that could be prevented for nearly nothing," he says.

Many U.S. workers are forced to go without insurance in spite of health plans offered by employers because deductibles and premiums -- which employees must pay before coverage goes into effect -- are on the rise.

"It's the out-of-pocket costs," says Stoll. "If you add that deductible on top of premiums, it becomes a tough choice."

Though Medicaid has covered growing numbers of uninsured in past years -- particularly children without insurance -- the government-funded health plan did not significantly increase its coverage in 2005, leaving an additional 400,000 children without health insurance.

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