As if anyone needs evidence the healthcare safety net isn't working, new state and county data from the U.S. Census Bureau for 2006 might be convincing.
Roughly one in four children and adults under age 65 in all income brackets had no health insurance of any kind in Texas, New York, Louisiana, and Florida. And roughly one in five had no coverage in Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Mississippi, Nevada, and Oregon.
They were not enrolled in Medicaid, Medicare, children's health coverage or private insurance plans, nor did they receive any health benefits through the military.
Drilling down to the level of the nation's 3,140 counties, the interactive census tables show an even more disturbing picture for children and adults in families earning at or below 200% of the federal poverty level.
In 218 counties with more than 250,000 residents under age 65, more than half of the residents in these low-income households had no health coverage.
In large Harris and Tarrant Counties in Texas, with residents under age 65 numbering 3.64 million and 1.56 million respectively, 51.4% and 50.5% of these low-income households were uninsured.
More than one in two residents of eight other counties with populations between 500,000 and one million had no health insurance. That includes Palm Beach County, FL (54.2%); Collin, Denton, and Travis counties, TX (62.5% 62.7%, and 50.4%); Fairfax County, VA (51.2%); Gwinnett County, GA (51.9%); Montgomery County, MD (52%), and Bergen County, N.J. (56%).
The percentage of poor households with no health insurance was the highest in Borden County, TX (79%). Borden County was followed by Los Alamos County, NM (78.7%); San Miguel County, CO (75.4%); Falls Church City, VA (74.5%); Glasscock County, TX (73.9%); Roberts County, TX (73.5%); Pitkin County CO, (72.2%); Putnam County, NY (70.6%); and McMullen County, TX (70.1%).
The agency's Small Area Health Insurance Estimates are used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in part to determine areas in need of breast and cervical cancer screening. "The data permit us to plan our various programs and help us make decisions on how to allocate resources," said Marcus Plescia, director of the CDC's Division of Cancer Prevention and Control.
This is the second year county-by-county health insurance statistics sorted by income bracket have been released.
President Obama continues to urge Democratic senators to persevere in trying to get a bipartisan deal on healthcare, but left open the possibility that they might have to pass a bill with only Democratic votes if Republicans stood in the way. At lunch with Democrats at the White House, Obama vowed to respond to Republican attacks on his plan, which aims to guarantee insurance for all Americans while slowing the explosive growth of health costs.
Groups on all sides of the health reform debate are pouring tens of millions of dollars into advertising campaigns designed to push the cause forward, slow it down, or stop it. Drugmakers, labor unions, both national political parties, and health insurance companies are all weighing in with significant ad buys. Nationwide, more than $52 million has been spent this year on healthcare reform-related ads, according to the Campaign Media Analysis Group.
White House officials have begun a two-pronged Internet campaign, geared toward reenergizing Web-savvy allies who backed Obama last year and whose support will be critical in getting the healthcare initiative through Congress. The new engagement by the White House comes at a time when Democratic lawmakers are fielding attacks on talk radio, in cyberspace, and at appearances in their home districts.
As the health reform debate heats up, America's Health Insurance Plans Chief Executive Karen M. Ignagni is facing her toughest test. After winning concessions and consensus from many insurance companies with competing interests, she now has to keep them together as the assault on the industry picks up. Rather than being cut out of the conversation, her strategy has been to push for changes her members can live with, in hopes of fending off too much government interference.
More than half of nurses who work in emergency departments report they've been physically assaulted on the job, according to an online survey of more than 3,000 ER nurses by the Emergency Nurses Association. Responding to the survey, the nurses said they have been spit on, hit, pushed, shoved, scratched, or kicked by patients while on duty.
Physicians will soon be able to become specialists in weight management. The Obesity Society and 10 other professional societies, including the American Diabetes Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, are creating an Obesity Medicine Physician Certification for doctors who pass an examination on nutrition, exercise, psychology, and medicine. Doctors will be able to earn the certificate in 2010.
Roughly 1 million of Florida's 2.6 million Medicaid patients were mistakenly deleted from eligibility rolls due to a computer glitch. A spokeswoman for the state Agency for Health Care Administration said that the problem has been fixed, although a reason for the computer failure has yet to be determined.
Medicare is taking tough steps to stop agencies from filing hundreds of millions of dollars a year in false claims. The federal agency is proposing a nationwide cap that would reduce Medicare reimbursements to any agency treating homebound patients with diabetes or other chronic ailments. The proposed limit would be 10% of the bill.
A state program that helps pay most health insurance costs for 27,000 unemployed Massachusetts residents is on the cusp of going broke. The program is now setting off a debate between healthcare advocates and business leaders who say funding it is a burden on companies fighting for their survival. The state's Medical Security Program, financed solely by a tax on employers, will run out of money in January because of the surge in unemployment over the past year, state officials said.
