From the Commonweath Fund today:
Using data from The Commonwealth Biennial Health Insurance Survey of 2010 and prior years, this report examines the effect of the recession on the health insurance coverage of adults between the ages of 19 and 64 and the implications for both their finances and their access to health care. The survey of 3,033 adults [was] conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International from July 2010 to November 2010
I encourage you to go read the whole thing, but here are some highlights:
- 43 million adults are in families with a job loss in the last two years. Of those, almost half lost their insurance because of the job loss, and almost 60% of those (or 9 million) became uninsured.
- Of adults age 19-64 who tried to buy individual coverage,19 million of them had serious issues or couldn’t find affordable coverage at all. More than 80% of those people had health problems.
- Over 120 million adults age 19-64 were uninsured, went without health care because of cost, or paid large shares (more than 10%) of their income on medical costs.
While the PPACA has significant problems, it does a lot of work to correct these issues. I’d appreciate anyone who supports repeal specifically addressing how their preferred method of reform does the same.
