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Record 47 million in U.S. uninsured

By Larry Lipman and Phil Galewitz / Palm Beach Post

WASHINGTON — June Gammie, 50, of West Palm Beach has been uninsured all of her adult life.

She works as a nursing assistant for a private-duty agency making $21,000 a year - too much to qualify for government health insurance programs, but too little to buy private health insurance.

"I praise the Lord every day that I don't get sick," she said.

Gammie is one of a record 47 million people in the United States who did not have health insurance last year, even as the poverty level continued to decline, according to U.S. Census Bureau reports released Tuesday. That was a jump of 2.2 million from the previous year.

More than half of the increase came from full-time workers, including 1.4 million in families with incomes greater than $75,000 and about 600,000 in families with incomes of $50,000-$75,000, according to an analysis by Physicians for a National Health Program.

In Florida, for the first time in at least 20 years, 21.2 percent, or more than one of five residents, were uninsured in 2006. That made it fourth in the nation in the rate of uninsured. Texas led the nation with nearly 25 percent, compared with the national average of 15.8 percent.

Stanley Pierce, chairman of the Health Care District of Palm Beach County, said Florida's recent focus on taxes and property insurance has meant the uninsured "went down the pecking order. There is a substantial amount of concern in Florida for the uninsured, but there needs to be more done." He notes that since last year's start of the district's Vita Health program, which allows the uninsured to pay about $50 a month for coverage, fewer than 600 have signed up.

In Stuart, the Volunteers-in-Medicine clinic handles more than 10,000 uninsured patients' visits a year and has seen its number of patients increase by about 5 percent a year, said clinic medical director Dr. Howard Voss.

Among the uninsured nationwide were 8.6 million children - an increase of about 600,000, or 8 percent, from 2005. That probably will add fuel to Congress' effort to reauthorize the children's health insurance program that is to expire at the end of September. President Bush has threatened to veto versions of the bill passed by the House and Senate before the August recess.

One census report also showed that the nation's official poverty rate dropped from 12.6 percent in 2005 to 12.3 percent last year - 36.5 million people. The Census Bureau called that decrease the first "statistically significant" drop since Bush took office in 2001. The rate was 12.7 percent in 2004 but the bureau indicated the drop between 2004 and 2005 was not "statistically significant."

But a separate report that looked more closely at state and local estimates put the national rate at 13.3 percent. In that report, Florida ranked 26th among the states, with a poverty level of 12.6 percent.

Nationwide, nearly one in five children under 18 lived in poverty compared with one in eight people under 65 and one in 10 adults 65 or older. The poverty level for a family of four last year was $20,614, and for an individual, $10,294.

The flip side of the decline in poverty was an increase in median household income for the second year in a row. One census report put the official national median income at $48,201. The other report put the national median income at $48,451, with Florida ranking 34th at $45,495.

Census officials said the two reports varied slightly because of differences in questionnaires, collection methods and survey times as well as sampling errors.

Democrats noted that the poverty and income figures last year were worse than during the final year of the Clinton administration. The nationwide median income in 2000 was $53,155 compared with $48,201 last year. The nationwide poverty rate in 2000 was 11.3 percent compared with 12.3 percent last year.

Meanwhile, June Gammie puts off preventive care she knows she needs. She said it's been at least three years since her last mammogram, and she can't remember her last Pap smear.

"I try not to worry about it," she said, noting she tries to eat a healthy diet and exercise. "I hope when I do get sick, I don't recover, and it's something big and it just takes me quickly."