Tue, Oct 07, 2008

Tucson Region

Report: 20.9% in AZ lack health insurance

By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 08.29.2007
PHOENIX — More than one out of every five Arizonans do not have health insurance, the fourth-highest rate in the nation, the U.S. Census Bureau reports.
New figures Tuesday show in excess of 1.3 million state residents lacked any type of health coverage in 2006. That amounts to 20.9 percent of the population, up from 19.6 percent in 2005.
Arizona is not alone in seeing more of its residents uninsured. The national figures went up from 15.3 percent in 2005 to 15.8 last year.
But the increase in Arizona has occurred despite voter approval in 2000 of a measure to make more people eligible for publicly funded health care.
That year the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System provided free care for anyone with an income about one third of the federal poverty level, about $6,000 a year at that time for a family of four. And that year the Census Bureau reported that 16.1 percent of Arizonans were without coverage of any sort.
Now the state covers everyone below the federal poverty level, a figure that was about $17,000 a year for a family of four and now has grown to more than $20,000.
And since 2000 AHCCCS enrollment has doubled, to more than 1 million last year.
The hike in the number of people without insurance may be directly attributable to the increasing cost of health insurance, said January Contreras, health adviser to Gov. Janet Napolitano. She said many companies, especially small ones, aren't providing their workers with coverage.
"Employers increasingly can't afford the rising premiums and so their employees are left to find coverage in the individual market, which can be a challenge," Contreras said. She said any talk of reducing the number of uninsured has to address curbing the cost of coverage.
Napolitano's chief of staff, Dennis Burke, said more money is needed from Washington.
Napolitano and other governors have lobbied for a big increase in federal funds for the State Children's Health Insurance Program. The Arizona version of that, known as Kids Care, covers children above the federal poverty level — people automatically covered by AHCCCS — but below 200 percent of that figure, about $41,300 a year for a family of four, with the federal government providing $3 for every dollar of state funds.
President Bush wants to increase federal funding by $5 billion over the next five years; congressional budget staffers estimate it will take $14 billion just to cover increased costs. And the Democrat-controlled Congress is looking for even more to expand coverage.