A new Commonwealth Fund survey finds that not only are uninsured rates among adults rising, but there has been a marked jump among people with modest incomes. Two of five working-age Americans with incomes between $20,000 and $40,000 a year were uninsured for at least part of the past year—a dramatic and rapid increase from 2001 when just over one-quarter of those with moderate incomes were uninsured, according to the new report, Gaps in Health Insurance: An All-American Problem, prepared for the Fund's Commission on a High Performance Health System. Lower-income adults were still the most likely to be uninsured, however. The vast majority of the uninsured are in working families: of the estimated 48 million working-age Americans uninsured during the year, 67 percent were in families where at least one person was working full-time. See the survey questionnaire, methodology, and full report at right, as well as statements from health policy experts James Mongan, M.D., president and CEO of Partners HealthCare; Fernando Guerra, M.D., director of the City of San Antonio Metropolitan Health District; Helen Darling, president of the National Business Group on Health; and Gerald Shea, assistant to the president for government affairs at the AFL-CIO.
Watch a multimedia presentation about the findings by lead author Sara R. Collins, Ph.D., senior program officer and director of the Fund's Program on the Future of Health Insurance. |
