Report: Many workers who lose jobs also lose health insurance

Courtesy of Kaisernetwork.org

Slightly more than half of modest-income Ohioans who don’t have jobs also don’t have health care insurance, according to an analysis commissioned by Families USA, the consumer health care advocate.

Fifty-three percent of Ohio’s 218,834 unemployed workers who lived in households of four earning less than $44,100 a year were uninsured at the end of 2008, according to the Lewin Group analysis (pdf). Nationwide, 54 percent of unemployed, modest-income workers lacked health insurance.

These are not surprising statistics. Workers who lose their jobs often find it difficult to afford health insurance, Families USA said in its report, posted today. Many of these workers are ending up competing for care at free clinics, according to a story by Kaiser Health News and the Washington Post.

Also not surprising: Families of four that earn less than 200 percent of the poverty-income level often have a greater challenge affording health insurance after the loss of a job than do higher-income families.

Yet only one in four unemployed workers in the moderate income group receives health coverage through Medicaid or some other public program, Families USA said. The U.S. Labor Department said today that 3.6 million workers have lost jobs since the recession began in Dec. 2007.

These statistics could become more troubling as the number of unemployed people grows. In Ohio, 465,000 Ohioans were unemployed in December, according to the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services. That’s up nearly 30 percent from unemployed ranks of 361,000 in December 2007. Not all of the unemployed in Ohio fall into the moderate-income category.

Both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate have included health insurance relief for unemployed workers in their proposed economic stimulus bills. This week, the Ohio Department of Insurance made its own recommendations for how to fulfill Gov. Ted Strickland’s call for cutting the state’s unemployed ranks.

Mary Vanac

Mary Vanac is a co-founder of MedCity News.

more

Tags: Families USA, health insurance, US healthcare reform

Comments Post a comment

Now is the time for people to get off their behinds and do something!
You can sit at home and whine or ask Uncle SAM to help you out, or you can start your own recession proof business.
Then you can afford health insurance and write it off too.

In good economic times, people are less interested in career alternatives but they can easily afford to buy more consumer goods. In bad times, they need new business opportunities. Today, we could soon be facing global recession – and tremendous worldwide opportunities for you.
The U.S. economy is cracking apart due to mortgage meltdowns and rising costs that are causing great concern worldwide. Fears are that an American economic dive will hurt the entire world economy.
MLM A Countercyclical Business
General economic theory holds that there tends to be a recession about every eight years. The entire history of the modern United States reflects this boom-and-bust cycle. Consistently, Network Marketing has grown during the â€œdownâ€ periods.
The oldest Network Marketing company we can track is the marine-vegetable (seaweed) supplement company, Wachterâ€™s, which started in 1937 near the bottom of the Great Depression. Nutrilite took off in 1945 during the economic decline immediately following World War II. Shaklee and Neolife fared well in the post-Korean War slump. Amway got a good start building with the slump in 1958. Mary Kay started with the downturn in the 1960s. This theory held true in 1992 when Alliance, Kaire, Life Plus, and a number of other companies started up and boomed (then later failed due to legal problems, partnership disputes, and mismanagement after the recession). Others went into hyper growth due to the same recession and became billion dollar companies.
When recession hits, those with any intelligence are going to scramble to find alternative sources of income. In their frantic searches, they are going to find that the best of all alternatives is Network Marketing.
We have the best Network Marketing company of them all. Returning up to 63%. Most other companys return in the 25 to 35%
If you are interested or have any other questions please don’t hesitate to call.

Al Gray
951-515-2430
al.trivani@gmail.com

Comment by Al GRay — February 8, 2009 @ 9:58 pm

A much wiser idea is to take a long hard look at the entire health insurance industry and then work to remedy the situation by taking out the waste and creating new, innovative ideas that would be a benefit for all.

Thank you for sharing this post.

Comment by Health Insurance — May 4, 2010 @ 4:40 pm