The Economic Policy Institute is reporting a disturbing — and dangerous — trend:
The share of the U.S. population under 65 years old with health insurance rose from 2006 to 2007. Despite these overall coverage gains, the news was not so good for employment-based health insurance: the share of persons covered through work (either their own or a family member’s employer) declined for the seventh year in a row. Over the 2000-07 period, the trends indicate a signifi cant shift from private to public coverage, especially among children. In particular, since 2006, public insurance was the only reason that more Americans did not become uninsured as coverage through work fell.
The news in New Jersey, according to the report, also was not good as it workers lost coverage at a greater rate than the rest of the nation. According to the report, New Jersey was 10th in the nation in the percentage of the work force, under the age of 65, who were covered by employer-provided health insurance during 2000 and 2001 with 75.6 percent of workers getting coverage.
In 2006-2007, however, the state ranked 11th, with its percentage dropping to 69.7 percent with the number of covered employees dropping by 252,315.
While New Jersey’s percentage remains above the national average of 62.9 percent, its percentage point decline of 5.8 was a full point higher than the national average.
New Jersey Policy Perspective, in an e-mail alert, said that over the last year — which falls outside of the report time frame — things may have gotten worse.
The drop in employer-provided health insurance coverage took place when the unemployment rate in New Jersey was only 4.2 percent in 2007, the lowest it had been in five years. By August 2008, unemployment had risen to 5.9 percent, suggesting that employer-provided coverage has likely eroded since the period covered by the report.
The numbers, as NJPP points out, are especially bad for low-income people and children:
At the national level, the EPI study found only 21.9 percent of low-income persons had employer coverage compared to 86.4 percent for higher income persons. The sad fact is, in our society, your health often depends on whether you have a job and how much money you make. That’s unfair to people and bad for the nation’s productivity.
New Jersey children are especially hard hit. For them, health insurance provided by a family member’s employer decreased to 68.6 percent from 76.2 percent.
There are ways of addressing it, NJPP says:
Fortunately, New Jersey enacted legislation this summer that mandates health insurance for all children by next year. The law also expands coverage for uninsured parents up to twice the federal poverty level. And, it made changes in the marketplace that should result in reducing the cost of private insurance for most individuals and group insurance for small employers. This should help to reduce shifting of the cost burden of health insurance from employers to taxpayers.
On the federal level,, Congress needs to pass pending legislation, as it did in the 2003 recession, that would temporarily increase the federal matching rate for Medicaid to avoid state cutbacks in health services. As Hippocrates advised, “First, do no harm.”
Hank Kalet 
If McCain/Palin win, you can kiss goodbye to Medicare and Medicaid. That will add about another 80 million to the uninsured. Hey, let\’s just keep on doing nothing about health care, let the free markets rule and in a few years we\’ll have 250 million uninsured. According to right wingers and libertarians, those uninsured folks are all bums and freeloaders so who cares about the uninsured anyhow. They deserve what they get, NOTHING!
Just a couple of little blurbs from the AARP Bulletin but the women in question are representative of tens of millions of Americans:* Anna Burdi of Bartlett ILL., was unable to work after developing multiple sclerosis. She paid more than $12,000 out of pocket for medications and now lives in the basement of a friend\’s house.* Theresa Manville, 61, of Bay Village, Ohio, could not afford the rheumatoid arthritis drugs she needed. She was laid off from her job as a senior account manager at a public relations firm in 1992. She started her own company but could not get private insurance because her arthritis was considered a preexisting condition. Because she didn\’t have the drugs which she needed her joints have deteriorated and her hands are deformed. She needs special orthotics in her shoes just to be able to walk and she will need knee replacement surgery. If she\’d had the drugs 10 years ago she could be independent today.There are tens of millions of stories like this in this country and many far worse. When does this insanity end?
From Paul Krugman\’s column, April 11,2008:\”Not long ago, a young Ohio woman named Trina Bachtel, who was having health problems while pregnant, tried to get help at a local clinic.Unfortunately, she had previously sought care at the same clinic while uninsured and had a large unpaid balance. The clinic wouldn’t see her again unless she paid $100 per visit — which she didn’t have.Eventually, she sought care at a hospital 30 miles away. By then, however, it was too late. Both she and the baby died.You may think that this was an extreme case, but stories like this are common in America.Back in 2006, The Wall Street Journal told another such story: that of a young woman named Monique White, who failed to get regular care for lupus because she lacked insurance. Then, one night, “as skin lesions spread over her body and her stomach swelled, she couldn’t sleep.”The Journal’s report goes on: “Mama, please help me! Please take me to the E.R.,” she howled, according to her mother, Gail Deal. “O.K., let’s go,” Mrs. Deal recalls saying. “No, I can’t,” the daughter replied. “I don’t have insurance.”She was rushed to the hospital the next day after suffering a seizure — and the hospital spared no expense on her treatment. But it all came too late; she was dead a few months later.How can such things happen? “I mean, people have access to health care in America,” President Bush once declared. “After all, you just go to an emergency room.” Not quite.First of all, visits to the emergency room are no substitute for regular care, which can identify and treat health problems before they get acute. And more than 40 percent of uninsured adults have no regular source of care.Second, uninsured Americans often postpone medical care, even when they know they need it, because of expense.\”
HEALTH INSURANCE CASUALTY OF THE DAY: Jan Stephens, RN – Anaheim, CA – 10/09/2008Posted by Colette Washing… on October 8, 2008 – 5:18pm RN Suffering from Incurable Disease Fails to Keep Up With Medical Expenses Even Though She\’s Insured Pays $14,000 a year out of pocket \”After being an emergency room nurse for 17 years, I became too ill to work,\” said Jan Stephens, an RN from Anaheim, Calif. \”It all started out manageable enough. In 1992, I enrolled in a Blue Cross policy with a monthly premium of $282, a $500 annual deductible, and a $250 prescription drug deductible. \”Then in 1995, I was diagnosed with an incurable bladder disease called interstitial cystitis and several other coexisting illnesses. I was disabled due to the excruciating pain and, like so many other people who become sick and can\’t work, I had to live on a fixed income. Problem was, my insurance costs kept going up. Now, my monthly insurance premiums are $639, with an annual deductible of $1,500, and I pay up to $500 per month out of pocket for prescription drugs. \”As just one example, the copayment for Elmiron, the only medicine specifically for treating interstitial cystitis, zoomed from $25 a month in 1999 for 200 capsules to $250 a month now for 180 capsules. Blue Cross will not cover the syringes, needles, urinary catheter, Lidocaine, or sodium bicarbonate that I need to administer the cocktail of medicines I use. \”I truly do not know how much longer I will be able to keep my home that I\’ve lived in for the last 30 years. In saying all that I\’ve said, I do realize that there are many people who are much worse off. While I am not terminally ill, my quality of life suffers immensely due to my illnesses and the financial strain that has resulted.\” ——————————— Sponsored by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee Eighty-two percent of Americans think the U.S. healthcare system should be fundamentally changed or completely rebuilt (Commonwealth Fund, Aug. 7, 2008). America\’s nurses know that only single-payer, improved and expanded Medicare for all will fix our broken system and the tragedy of our devastated families. HR 676, by U.S. Rep John Conyers, is the most comprehensive, cost effective way to achieve guaranteed healthcare for all.