New study: One in three uninsured over last two years

A new study by Families USA found that one in three Americans, or 86.7 million people, lacked health insurance at some point in the last two years. The majority of those uninsured were employed with full-time jobs, and the less money a family made, the more likely family members were to lack insurance.

“The huge number of people without health coverage is worse than an epidemic,” Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, said in a statement. “At this point, almost everyone in the country has had a family member, neighbor, or friend who was uninsured, and that’s why meaningful health care reform can no longer be kept on the back burner.”

The study was complied using 2007 and 2008 data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

The lack of health insurance was long-term. More than 60 percent lacked insurance for more than nine months, and 75 percent were uninsured for at least six months. Seventy-nine percent of those without health insurance came from a family where at least one member was working full-time, and almost 60 percent of the uninsured had incomes below the poverty line. Even among families with income levels at four times the federal poverty level, nearly 18 percent lacked insurance.

Only 16.2 percent came from families where no one was working, but 4.6 percent of those reported someone was actively seeking employment.

In Minnesota, the most recent figures are a bit better, but like the rest of the nation the majority of those that are uninsured are also employed. Casey Selix writing for MinnPost last fall dug into the numbers:

[M]ost of Minnesota’s uninsured are working — 71.3 percent are employed vs. 28.7 unemployed. Of those who are employed, 79.4 percent work for someone else. About 44 percent of those folks work for employers with two to 50 employees, pointing up evidence that small businesses might be hard-pressed to afford and/or offer health insurance. Yet another 23 percent of the uninsured work for employers with 51 to 500 workers. And about 18 percent work for companies with more than 500 employees.

Though 31 percent of the uninsured say they log fewer than 30 hours per week, 44.5 percent report working 31 to 40 hours weekly and 24.5 percent say they work more than 40 hours.