WASHINGTON — A new report to be released today shows that the lack of health insurance is a much more widespread problem than formerly believed, with roughly 75 million non-elderly Americans -- nearly 1 in 3 -- going without coverage for some period during the last two years.
The report, published by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is the latest in a series of government and private studies to show that rising health-care costs, a weakening economy and state budget deficits are leaving more Americans without basic health coverage.
Using data collected by the Census Bureau, the report found that almost two-thirds of those who lacked insurance sometime in 2001 or 2002 were uninsured for at least six months. One-quarter -- or roughly 18 million people -- had no health insurance for the two-year period.
Nearly 4 in 5 of those lacking health insurance were in the labor force or had at least one parent who was employed.
California had more uninsured individuals -- 11.1 million -- than any other state. Its proportion of the uninsured non-elderly -- 35.5% -- was higher than the national average.
"The uninsured problem is no longer an issue of altruism for other people," Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, said Tuesday. "Now it is an issue of self-interest for us all."
The finding that 30.1% of non-elderly Americans went without health insurance for some part of the two-year period is considerably higher than the latest official government estimate.
The most recent report by the Census Bureau, released in September, found that 41.2 million Americans -- or 14.6% of the population -- had no health coverage for any part of 2001.
The Robert Wood Johnson report, prepared by the advocacy group Families USA, sheds new light on the problem by using additional and more recent Census Bureau data to calculate the number of Americans who had gone without health insurance for any length of time over two years.
Last year, the Census Bureau said the first jump in the uninsured rate in three years was largely because of a decline in the proportion of Americans who got health coverage through their own job or that of a family member.
The Census Bureau cautioned at the time that, if not for increased enrollment in Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program, the number of Americans uninsured in 2001 would have been much higher.
