Number of uninsured Americans hits record high (50.7 million)

[sabra]

Source: MSNBC

Latest Census report shows 50.7 million people don't have health insurance

In a reflection of the battered economy, the number of people without health insurance rose sharply last year to 50.7 million — an all time high — according to data released Thursday by the Census Bureau.

That pushed the rate of uninsured Americans to 16.7 percent last year from 15.4 percent in 2008, when there were 46.3 million uninsured. It was one of the largest single year increases since the Census starting tracking the figure in 1987.

Nearly every demographic and geographic group posted a rise in the uninsured rate—with the exception of children, who remained stable at about 10 percent. The sharpest jumps were in the Midwest and South, although all areas of the country saw increases.

“In a word, this is devastating,” said Jonathan Oberlander, professor of social medicine and health policy at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39215770/ns/health-health_care/

[kirby]

1. The sharpest jumps were in the Midwest and South..

The very locations that keep electing those opposed to HCR.

[pleah]

2. Yep. If it keeps eat up the paycheck we may be one of the many

without.

[SILVER__FOX52]

3. You are so right.

It's an enigma? A riddle wrapped in a mystery. Actually it's just gross ignorance.

[freebrew]

4. And they were expecting?

Something different?


Morans.

[kestrel91316]

5. Prediction: when it hits 100 million we WILL get single payer.

I give it 5 years.

[pattmarty]

14. I think in five years I will be an ex-pat. You seem to have more...........

.........."hope" than me.

[indepat]

6. Oh thank God, pubs, and DINOs for HCR

;)

[wilt the stilt]

7. yay we have the bestest healthacre in the world

so say Faux and many nincompoops in the south.

[Dappleganger]

8. This reflects the REAL state of the Nation...

uninsured Americans are without jobs, underemployed, students, homeless, small business owners or self-employed, etc.

*kicked and recc'd for the bubble-blowers*

[HockeyMom]

9. I am opting out of my employer insurance

as of January. $3,500 deductible paying $250 a month for individual coverage. I work for a school district in the South (Republican what else?).

What really stinks is that I am only 3 years away from Medicare.

[closeupready]

11. Well, then, just don't get sick. Easy, Schmeasy.

:sarcasm:

[PruneJuiceMedia]

10. I'm willing to bet...

The appropriate follow-up story to this is that our health insurance premiums (for the ones left WITH insurance) are going to continue to skyrocket!

I'm self-employed and I really can't take this pain anymore in my wallet. I cringe thinking of the new year and knowing that I'm going to get a letter from Blue Cross Blue Shield saying that rates are going up AGAIN! For what, I don't know? They tend to find a way to nickel and dime their way out of everything.

[closeupready]

12. Don't worry - Sebelius says she won't stand for it anymore!

Honest. :sarcasm:

[KansDem]

15. Funny you should say this...

The appropriate follow-up story to this is that our health insurance premiums (for the ones left WITH insurance) are going to continue to skyrocket!

Just Tuesday, I sat in with the benefits committee where I work and we discussed the new plan year coming up for our health/dental polices. We have BCBS and the representative said we might be looking at an increase in premiums.

We are just coming off a year in which we had our salaries frozen, and now we might have a slight merit increase for 2011. However, I imagine that'll be offset, and then some, by the increases in BCBS premiums.

It's almost as if the representative knew we would be receiving wage raises and wanted to "cash in."

Oh, and welcome to DU! :hi:

[pattmarty]

13. I don't want to sound like a fucking broken record, but here is what............

.............should have been passed: Medicare for all implemented in stages, first the 55-65 and ALL kids up to twenty one. Next, you work down from the 55 yo in 10 year stages until everyfuckingbody is covered. Simple and most importantly A FUCK OF A LOT CHEAPER. We all got fucked w/o the KY on this bill.

[burnsei sensei]

16. Thank the U.S. government for the census.

It's the most powerful shatterer of American myths I know.
No wonder Sarah Palin et al defy it.

[OnlinePoker]

17. Wasn't there something in the mandatory insurance bill about fines if you don't have insurance?

There's a couple of billion more for the federal coffers. Of course if you can't afford insurance...how do you pay the fine?

[Iowa]

18. Not until 2014...

And there are subsidies - and Medicaid for those who have even lower incomes.

It isn't even close to what it should have been (Medicare for all), but it is FAR better than what we have now. Punch your income into this calculator and you'll see what I mean:

http://healthreform.kff.org/SubsidyCalculator.aspx

[area51]

19. As several DU'ers have said, we need Medicare for All.

Each day, 273 people die due to lack of health care in the U.S.; that's 100,000 deaths per year.

We need single-payer health care, not a welfare bailout for the serial-killer insurance agencies.

We don't need the GingrichCare of mandated, unregulated, for-profit insurance that is still too expensive, only pays parts of medical bills, denies claims, and bankrupts people. Republinazi '93 plan:

"Subtitle F: Universal Coverage - Requires each citizen or lawful permanent resident to be covered under a qualified health plan or equivalent health care program by January 1, 2005."

"We will never have real reform until people's health stops being treated as a financial opportunity for corporations."

[Recursion]

23. There's no evidence it would cost less than private insurance

How to pay for Medicare for All is the one question we can't seem to answer.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

25. Tax dividends at the same rate as salary.

Increase the tmtr above 50%.
Lift the FICA cap.
Cut military spending in half.

It seems we can answer that question.

[and-justice-for-all]

20. Would not be an fucking issue if we had Medicare for all!!!

Not having unversial health care in this country is revolting to say the least.

[OhioChick]

21. If you don't have a job, you likely don't have health insurance. n/t

[unkachuck]

22. 50.7 million uninsured....

....it's getting worse, not better....

....it's an unforgivable sin that we've wasted the best opportunity in over one hundred years to enact Universal Healthcare....there is absolutely no excuse for this failure....

....the great Socialist God above just might punish us in November....

[Billy Burnett]

24. Meanwhile in Cuba ...

Despite poverty, every Cuban has access to world class universal health care (with more working Drs per capita than any other nation) and every Cuban has access to a world class universal education.

Just how the f#ck is the US deemed to be a leader in anything (aside from the world leading military budget)?