The new Census report paints a mixed picture of how Americans have fared with health insurance coverage during the recession.
The percentage of people without health coverage was unchanged last year at 15.4%, although the number increased to 46.3 million from 45.7 million in 2007. How people got health insurance, however, shifted significantly during the year as the burden fell increasingly on government.
The number of Americans covered by private health insurance declined by 1 million in 2008. But that loss was more than offset by a 4.4 million increase in the number of people getting health insurance from government programs such as Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor.
Overall, the Census report showed the recession has taken a big bite out of the financial health of American households, softened somewhat by the safety net of government programs. The income and poverty numbers are the first to reflect the effect of the recession, which began in December 2007 and has erased 6.9 million jobs.
Well duh! Since probably the majority of those folk lost their health insurance when they lost their jobs, which to fix first?
Using money to give them health insurance, won’t do a lot of good, all one will have is a bunch of healthier families with nothing to eat, nowhere to live, and no job..
Lets start with the important stuff, a person can get well sometimes without a doctor, but a family cannot survive long without an income.
Grandmother