U.S. Study: 1 in 5 Lost Health Insurance in Past Year

[TomCADem]

Source: ABC News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly 20 percent of the U.S. population -- or almost 60 million people -- went without health insurance at some point since January 2008, according to government estimates released Wednesday.

The analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention comes as Democratic senators wrestle to pass their version of health reform legislation before the end of the year to help make good on President Barack Obama's top domestic goal of overhauling the nation's $2.5 trillion healthcare system.

Much of the focus so far has been on how to expand access to health insurance in a nation where coverage is closely tied to employment but 10 percent of the work force in unemployed. More than 45 million people are uninsured.

While the CDC's findings largely backed that figure, they also found 58.4 million lacked coverage at some point in the year prior to the survey, while 31.9 million -- or nearly 11 percent -- did not have insurance for more than a year.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=9352852&ros=true

[FiveGoodMen]

1. Future prisoners

[bemildred]

2. I haven't had "health insurance" since 2002.

I've had very little "health care" too, a luxury provided by my lack of any need for it. But if I did need "health care", it would be the care I needed, not the insurance, which is mainly an obstacle in the way when you need "health care".

[Dark]

3. Oh fer fuck's sake. This IS the free market at work, and it's failing.

But we're supposed to trust these fucks with insurance reform?