499 Going without health insurance

We did that--the first year we were married. When you were young in the 60s you didn’t think much about it. Most young people are healthy (if they don‘t drink or smoke)--they also think nothing will ever happen to them. Our kids did the same when they left home at 18. Most companies today that offer health insurance have a waiting period--a month, three months--or it is an option that the employee needs to help pay for through payroll deductions. And what 18 year old thinks he should pay for anything?

So we paid up front in 1961 and sort of “lay away” for our first baby, from the time I found out I was pregnant. Later we bought a hospital insurance policy--but all our doctor visits we still paid out of pocket. Yes, doctor visits were cheaper then, probably about $10-$15, but our income was only about $4,000 a year--so you crunch the numbers and see what the difference is in today‘s dollars.

But this post isn’t about me but about the poor who lack health insurance today. The Current Population Survey of the Census Report got a lot of negative media play last month, particularly here in Ohio where Cleveland made the list of poorest cities. It being campaign time, of course, President Bush got a lot of blame as though he personally had insisted parents have babies without marriage or not earn high school degrees, the major cause of poverty in the USA.

American Heritage Foundation has issued WebMemo 556 which includes some interesting details that the MSM and many in the alternative press left out of their coverage. He refers to the U.S. Census Bureau, “Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2003.” Report No. P60-226, August 2004, at http://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/p60-226.pdf and summaries from this and other sources. The CPS is a snapshot, but other data in the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), also provided by the Census Bureau, follow individuals.

Poverty is often short-lived. More than half of all poverty “spells” (time spent in poverty) last less than four months, and about 80 percent last less than a year. In fact, very few people—only about 2 percent of the total population—are chronically poor in America, as defined by living in poverty for four years or more.

Substantial income mobility, both upward and downward, exists in America. About 38 percent of all households in the lowest income quintile rose to a higher quintile within three years. An almost equal percentage (34 percent) of all households in the top quintile fell within three years.

Spells of uninsurance are short-lived. The typical family that loses health insurance is uninsured for only 5.6 months on average.

Very few people lack health insurance long-term. Only 3.3 percent of all Americans went without some kind of health insurance for four or more years. Additionally, only one in nine people were without health insurance for more than two years of the four-year study period.

Health insurance coverage rates have risen over time. In 1996, some 8.8 percent were without health insurance for the entire year, a figure that dropped to 8.0 percent by 1999. Conversely, 78.2 percent of all Americans had health insurance for the entire year in 1996, which rose to 80.4 percent by 1999.

Read the entire report to see the references.