Private Insurance Rolls Drop, but More Children Enroll in Medicaid, CHIP
The number of U.S. residents who were uninsured at any point in the previous 12 months reached 60.3 million in 2010, nearly two million individuals more than in 2009, according to a recent report by CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, American Medical News reports.
According to the report, about 61% of nonelderly U.S. adults had private insurance in 2010, a drop of 1.7 percentage points. Meanwhile, the rate of privately insured children decreased by 1.9 percentage points, to about 54%. However, fewer children overall lost coverage because the percentage of children insured by Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program increased by two percentage points, to 39.8%.
U.S. adults younger than age 65 whose annual incomes are between 100% and 200% of the federal poverty level saw the greatest decline in private coverage, with an increase of nearly four percentage points in the uninsured rate. Few states offer Medicaid coverage to residents within this income bracket, and such individuals could have limited options for private insurance.
Peter Cunningham -- director of quantitative research at the Center for Studying Health System Change -- said high unemployment rates stemming from the recession most likely is the reason for the increase in uninsured individuals from 2009 to 2010 (Trapp, American Medical News, 7/11).
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