Fwd: qotd: New Census Bureau numbers on the uninsured

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-------- Original Message --------
Subject: qotd: New Census Bureau numbers on the uninsured
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2012 12:09:03 -0700
From: Don McCanne <don@mccanne.org>
To: Quote-of-the-Day <quote-of-the-day@mccanne.org>



United States Census Bureau
September 2012
Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2011
By Carmen DeNavas-Walt, Bernadette D. Proctor, Jessica C. Smith

Health Insurance Coverage - 2011

48.6 million or 15.7% - people without health insurance
7.0 million - children under 18 uninsured

193.7 million or 63.9% - people covered by private health insurance
170.1 million or 55.1% - people covered by employment-based insurance

99.5 million or 32.2% - people covered by government health insurance
50.8 million or 16.5% - people covered by Medicaid
46.9 million or 15.2% - people covered by Medicare

Poverty

9.5 million or 11.8% - families living in poverty
31.2% - families with a female householder living in poverty

Income Inequality

Income inequality also increased between 2010 and 2011 when measured by
shares of aggregate household income received by quintiles. The
aggregate share of income declined for the middle and fourth quintiles.
The share of aggregate income increased 1.6 percent for the highest
quintile and within the highest quintile, the share of aggregate income
for the top 5 percent increased 4.9 percent. The changes in the shares
of aggregate income for the lowest two quintiles were not statistically
significant.

http://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p60-243.pdf


Comment: The numbers of uninsured decreased from 50.0 million in 2010
to 48.6 million in 2011. That might be good news for the net 1.4 million
newly insured, but it is terrible news for the 48.6 million who remain
without health insurance.

These numbers, of course, are transitional since new private coverage
through the state insurance exchanges and the greater expansion of
coverage under Medicaid will not take place until 2014. Even then, the
new coverage will be either with private underinsurance plans (low
actuarial value and inadequate subsidies) or with the chronically
underfunded Medicaid program, with even greater impairment of health
care access likely. Worse, 30 million will still have no coverage at all
(CBO).

Perhaps even more shocking is that 31.2% of families with a female
householder live in poverty - right here in the United States!

And income inequality? The aggregate share of household income has
decreased for the middle and fourth quintiles. The middle class is being
wiped out!

Of course we knew all this. So why aren't we doing something about it?
Howling in the wind doesn't seem to be getting us very far.