August 30, 2005
46 Million Lack Health Insurance
Record High Blamed Partly On Erosion Of Employee-Sponsored Coverage
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(AP)
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Bush also backs a plan allowing small businesses to join in purchasing worker coverage, though Congress has yet to approve the program.
Robert Helms, a health policy analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, argues that Tuesday's numbers give lawmakers little incentive to treat the nation's uninsured problem as a crisis.
"It doesn't put any increasing pressure on the politicians to do anything about this, and they don't seem to be inclined to do anything anyway," he tells WebMD.
The White House has proposed $10 billion in cuts to Medicaid to rein in 7 percent annual rises in program costs. But program advocates attacked the proposal Tuesday, noting that Medicaid provided a cushion that offset falling rates of employer-sponsored insurance in 2004.
"Americans are playing by the rules, they're working, they're waking up every morning to go to their jobs and they have no health security. Cuts to Medicaid are the wrong direction to move," says Kathleen Stoll, director of health policy for the consumer health group Families USA.
The group points out that 4.6 million more Americans lack medical coverage now than in 2001. "It's pretty much an epidemic of physical and financial crises for Americans here," she says.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau: "Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2004," Aug. 30, 2005. Robert Helms, resident scholar in health policy, American Enterprise Institute. Kathleen Stoll, health policy director, Families USA.
By Todd Zwillich
Reviewed by Brunilda Nazario, MD
© 2005, WebMD Inc. All rights reserved.
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