Published: October 2009

No job, no insurance delivers an economic knock-out to families

Families USA has released a report that details the "one-two punch" of families losing both their jobs and their health insurance. The report contends that there are far more people in 2009 lacking health coverage than the 46.3 million cited by 2008 Census Bureau data.

Download a copy of the report entitled “One-Two Punch: Unemployed and Uninsured”

Below is an excerpt from the report:

The economic downturn that began in 2007 has had a profound effect on families across the nation. Millions of working Americans have lost their jobs, and, with each passing month, that number grows. For many, the loss of a job also means the loss of health coverage. This one-two punch deals a painful blow to the economic security of American families, leaving them at risk of shouldering the high cost of care on their own should illness strike.

According to data recently released by the Census Bureau, some 46.3 million people lacked health coverage in 2008. However, the economy has changed a great deal since 2008: Unemployment continued to rise through the first eight months of 2009, even as recovery efforts worked to reverse this trend. And, as unemployment rises, the proportion of uninsured working-age Americans grows.

Thus, given the substantial increase in unemployment between 2008 and today, the latest Census Bureau data, which reflect the insurance status of Americans in 2008, underestimate the number of people who are uninsured today. To get a clearer picture of the current crisis of the uninsured, a more in-depth look at the link between unemployment and uninsurance is needed. In this report, Families USA provides a state-by-state analysis of the likely magnitude of the increase in uninsured working-age adults in 2009 due to rising unemployment.

Given the close link between unemployment and uninsurance, and given the marked increase in the unemployment rate between 2008 and 2009, we estimate that the number of uninsured working-age adults (19-64) today is substantially higher than the Census Bureau’s 2008 estimate.

In 2008, the national unemployment rate ranged from 4.8 percent to 7.2 percent and averaged 5.8 percent. It reached a high of 9.7 percent in August 2009, averaging 8.9 percent for the first eight months of the year

For More Information

Download File

No Download Available

Filed Under

Consumer Protection   ♦   Health   ♦   Insurance   ♦  

Comments

 
1. On 02/26/2010, Jose Bravo says:

   Americans are accustomed to having a job and the benefits associated with it.  This familiar lifestyle provides us with a stable presence, a successful past, and a future for the many families.  We looked to the future with excitement and confidence.

   But then, all of a sudden everything changes, everything stops, you realize then how vulnerable we are without income and without health coverage.  Then the bills pile up as we seek solutions to our desperate situation.

   The desperation makes us vulnerable to scam rip-offs who prey on our hopes and dreams and on the desire to make things better for our family.

   An associate and I became prey to an Orange County person who scammed us out of $2,500.00 each, supposedly as a “deposit” for a portion of an existing business that was about to be taken over.  The business is “Hyperbaric Oxygen Clinics of Santa Monica” on Wilshire Blvd.

   This rip-off individual is an experienced con artist and lives off the cash from his unsuspecting victims.  His Name is Scott A. Johnson and he is the reason why I’m on this site: to approach the AG for help and justice, to have him arrested and prosecuted for his cold and selfish deeds.

   If you can contribute additional information to assist me in my efforts to recover my hard earned cash and also help me to put this guy in jail….......I sincerely appreciate your comments.  Thank you, Jose Bravo