Number of Uninsured Falls but There's No Cause for Celebration

In October 2008, a journal article was published in The Nation's Health outlining current trends in health insurance coverage. In the article, Kim Krisberg shares news of the number of people without health insurance falling. There still may not be cause for celebration though, because it looks as though those people have been picked up by government health care programs. That means the taxpayer's bill for their care has gone up.

According to the US Census bureau, the number of people without health insurance in 2007 was cut by more than 1 million. That sounds like good news until later when the article points out that, "the picture is not all rosy" according to Georges Benjamin, M.D. Dr. Benjamin is the Executive Director of the APHA (American Public Health Association). That's because in the same year, Medicaid and Medicare enrollment went up because people with health insurance through their employer lost coverage.

There was a silver lining in the cloud due to the fact that the number of kids with no health insurance dropped from 11.7% in 2006 to 11% in 2007. The bad news is that according to the census, poor children will still be likely to not have health insurance coverage.

As to whether the story is any different for minorities, the answer is that there is still a disparity in the number without health insurance but that number did decrease in 2007. That brought the new totals to 19.5% for Blacks, and 32% for Hispanics as compared to 10% for Whites. In contrast, the number of uninsured Asians rose in 2007.

Dr. Karen Davis is president of the Commonwealth Fund, an organization that works to improve the health care system in the United States. She notes in the article that it's good to see the rates of uninsured people decrease but it's still a "serious problem" and it should be high on the list of priorities for the next president.

Interestingly, in the second presidential debate, when Barack Obama was asked about his plans to reduce Medicare and Medicaid costs, he was ready to share his plans with the country. He indicated that part of his plans to reduce the burden on taxpayers is to invest in disease prevention programs. This common sense plan may fare well to reduce costs by keeping people from needing as much pricey care in the first place.

The verdict will be in on whether we can put that plan into action after the nation takes to the polls to elect the next president of the United States.