Region Faces Gap in Health Insurance
Mon, March. 19, 2007
Nearly 1-in-7 New York residents lack health insurance, and the numbers would be far higher if government-provided coverage had not expanded, statistics and interviews show.
Upstate New York is faring worse than downstate, partly because of the significant declines in manufacturing industry employment, according to some analysts.
Key figures include:
The percentage of uninsured people in New York state decreased from 16.3 percent in 2000 to 13.5 percent in 2005, making it the only state to show significant improvement in increasing health-care coverage, according to a report from the union-supported Fiscal Policy Institute in Albany.
Employment-based coverage upstate, however, declined from 73.7 percent to 71.5 percent between 2000 and 2005 for people between the ages of 18 and 64, while it increased from 60.1 percent to 62.1 percent downstate for the same demographic, according to an Excellus BlueCross BlueShield report.
Taking up the slack has been an increase this decade in government-provided coverage such as Medicaid, Child Health Plus and Family Health Plus.
Statewide figures somewhat reflect a national trend, since the percentage of Americans receiving employer-provided health insurance between 2004 and 2005 decreased from 59.8 percent to 59.5 percent, while the percentage of those receiving government-provided insurance remained the same — 27.3 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Beyond the numbers are individuals such as Shayla Harris of Utica, who is trying to make her dollars stretch far enough to support her household, which includes three children, ages 16, 13 and 5.
After taxes, health insurance, a car payment and car insurance are electronically deducted from her paycheck, the Utica resident is left with about $400 a week. Now, the weekly payment of her health insurance premium is more than doubling — from $24.44 to $53.33 a week.
"And we had no warning. They sent us a letter two days before the first payment was due to come out," said Harris, who works in the shipping department at New Hartford-based manufacturing company Special Metals.
Upstate, downstate
Although Harris is paying more for her health insurance, her employer is still providing it. A growing number of employers, however, are not, analysts say. The rising cost of health insurance is behind more companies eliminating or reducing health insurance coverage for their employees.
References : http://www.uticaod.com/ |
