Friday, July 22, 2005
Census Bureau: Uninsured on the rise
[Joel Mathis, "More Kansans doing without health insurance," The Lawrence Journal-World, 22 July 2005.]
The Journal-World reports on the distrurbing trend toward higher rates of uninsured Kansans in this article:
New figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday also suggest a rise in the number of uninsured local and state residents. The bureau reported that 12.1 percent of Douglas Countians and 12 percent of Kansans lack coverage; both figures were lower than the national average, but higher than previous estimates.
State officials said the report signified the urgency of the health care problem.
“When you’ve got 300,000 of your citizens who are uninsured and don’t have access, that’s not acceptable,” said Charlene Bailey, a spokeswoman at the Kansas Insurance Department.
Worse, policymakers continue to offer the same tired approaches to health care that are unlikely to yield positive outcomes:
State officials say they’re working to tackle the issue.
Bailey said the insurance department was sponsoring a Health Care Cost Containment Commission to bring health costs under control. On the table: tax incentives to small businesses that provide insurance and streamlined processes for doctors to receive credentials from insurance companies.
Nicole Corcoran, a spokeswoman for Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, said the state was also working to enroll 40,000 children in the Medicaid and Health Wave programs and provide prescription assistance for low-income Kansans, among other efforts.
Keeping the focus on employer-based coverage and broken government programs may give politicians something to say to the press, but these are hardly long-term solutions. Earlier this week, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran an article on how consumer-driven plans are saving people money and making coverage more accessible to the uninsured:
Gary Lauer, chief executive of eHealthInsurance Services Inc. based in Mountain View, Calif., said the new policies also are attractive to small businesses and the uninsured.
He said that of the new policies purchased through eHealthInsurance, where Standiford found his plan, more than 40 percent were purchased by people with annual incomes below $50,000, almost half were families and more than one-third had been uninsured.
"It's the affordability," he said. "They get a lower-cost premium. And the money they probably would have been spending anyway, they can run through a savings account to buy day-to-day medical services."
[Matthew Hisrich, "One size won't fit all," Letter to the editor, The Wichita Eagle, 2 June 2005.
Matthew Hisrich, "Insurance issue," The Lawrence Journal-World, 23 September 2004.]
[Joel Mathis, "More Kansans doing without health insurance," The Lawrence Journal-World, 22 July 2005.]
The Journal-World reports on the distrurbing trend toward higher rates of uninsured Kansans in this article:
New figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday also suggest a rise in the number of uninsured local and state residents. The bureau reported that 12.1 percent of Douglas Countians and 12 percent of Kansans lack coverage; both figures were lower than the national average, but higher than previous estimates.
State officials said the report signified the urgency of the health care problem.
“When you’ve got 300,000 of your citizens who are uninsured and don’t have access, that’s not acceptable,” said Charlene Bailey, a spokeswoman at the Kansas Insurance Department.
Worse, policymakers continue to offer the same tired approaches to health care that are unlikely to yield positive outcomes:
State officials say they’re working to tackle the issue.
Bailey said the insurance department was sponsoring a Health Care Cost Containment Commission to bring health costs under control. On the table: tax incentives to small businesses that provide insurance and streamlined processes for doctors to receive credentials from insurance companies.
Nicole Corcoran, a spokeswoman for Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, said the state was also working to enroll 40,000 children in the Medicaid and Health Wave programs and provide prescription assistance for low-income Kansans, among other efforts.
Keeping the focus on employer-based coverage and broken government programs may give politicians something to say to the press, but these are hardly long-term solutions. Earlier this week, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran an article on how consumer-driven plans are saving people money and making coverage more accessible to the uninsured:
Gary Lauer, chief executive of eHealthInsurance Services Inc. based in Mountain View, Calif., said the new policies also are attractive to small businesses and the uninsured.
He said that of the new policies purchased through eHealthInsurance, where Standiford found his plan, more than 40 percent were purchased by people with annual incomes below $50,000, almost half were families and more than one-third had been uninsured.
"It's the affordability," he said. "They get a lower-cost premium. And the money they probably would have been spending anyway, they can run through a savings account to buy day-to-day medical services."
[Matthew Hisrich, "One size won't fit all," Letter to the editor, The Wichita Eagle, 2 June 2005.
Matthew Hisrich, "Insurance issue," The Lawrence Journal-World, 23 September 2004.]
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