SACRAMENTO — so that more Americans lose health coverage because of unemployment, the latest snapshot of the uninsured reveals a grim picture: it is not only the poor and unemployed people now go without health insurance.
The percentage of uninsured among families earning between $ 50,000 and $ 75,000 per year has almost doubled in the last decade.
' It is precisely the trend, which has a driving force in the conversation around health care reform, "said Anthony Wright, Executive Director for Health Access California, a consumer health advocacy group.
"As it has been a real crisis in the middle class, it required a larger correction--which is why the big push for a federal health law," Wright said.
Even as the country begins rolling out President Barack Obama Patient protection and affordable Care Act, which was signed into law in March, continue to the number of Americans without medical insurance grow--to an estimated 50 million nationwide.
Robbin Gaines, a senior program officer with the California health care Foundation, said she could not fully explain the increase in the insured, but said unemployment is specific reason.
"As people lose their jobs, they also lose their health insurance," she said.
Fifty-two percent of Californians working people and their families now have health insurance from work-based coverage--from 65 percent in 1987, according to the Foundation.
As a consequence, the more people buy health coverage on their own, that small businesses do away with the advantage.
Often, but they cannot afford the same coverage you had once through work, and many choose policies with higher premiums and deductibles.
The cost of prescription drugs and medical services also continues to rise, to add to the financial burden on families, said Patrick Johnston, President of the California Association of Health plans.
"The Rising cost of health care will inevitably put pressure on more people and let them uninsured, unless we can lower health care costs and to assist these families which is not really can pay for coverage with a grant," said Johnston.
The increase in the number of uninsured can go unabated for another couple of years, until the key provisions in the health legislation are implemented.
The good news, said Wright, is that help is on its way.
"The bad news is the key provisions are not kick until 2014,? he said.
It is when many key features of the federal health law go into effect, including the opening of the health insurance exchanges, where millions of Americans who are struggling with the costs of health care will be able to take advantage of the Government subsidies if they qualify to purchase coverage.
It is also, when most Americans will be required to obtain coverage through their employers--or through exchanges--or face tax penalties that will eventually exceed $ 695 per year for a person or more than $ 2,085 per year per family.
The Federal law, the subject of months of intense debate in Congress and public forums across the country, was meant to increase access to health care to the country's millions of uninsured.
In the years kept the percentage of lower-income families without health insurance is generally constant--with approximately 37 percent of those earning $ 25,000 a year or less ongoing without health coverage.
From 2000, about a quarter of families earning between $ 25,000 and $ 50,000, no health care coverage. And around one-tenth of those who earned more than $ 75,000 a year not enrolled in a health plan.
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