Almost 50,000 fewer Tennesseans had health insurance this year than in 2007, according to data released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The change, which reflects a steadily growing increase in the state’s uninsured population over the past 10 years, comes at a time when the country’s uninsured population stayed relatively the same and Virginia’s uninsured population has decreased.
“This is more evidence of the growing trend that shows more people are struggling with obtaining and maintaining health insurance,” said Susan McKay, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Health Care Campaign, a Nashville-based advocacy group.
According to the Census data, an estimated 931,000 Tennesseans – or about 15.4 percent of the state’s population – did not have some form of private or government-sponsored health insurance last year.
That’s up from the 883,000 people, or 14.4 percent of the state’s total population, from 2007. In 1999, only 529,000 Tennesseans, or 9.5 percent of the state’s population, lacked health insurance.
McKay said she’s worried this year’s actual numbers could be even worse considering the fact they may not reflect a series of layoffs and TennCare cuts that took place this year. David Johnson, chief of the Census Bureau’s housing and economic statistics division, said as much during a Thursday news conference about the data.
“If they had health insurance at the beginning of the year and lost it later in the year, we would count them as having insurance,” Johnson said. He added these changes will not likely show up until the bureau releases its health insurance data next year.
The Census Bureau released its estimates as part of its 2009 Current Population Survey’s Annual Social and Economic Supplement, which measures household incomes, insurance coverage and poverty levels on a state-by-state basis.
According to the report:
* The number of uninsured Virginians dropped over the past two years, going from 1.1 million people, or 14.8 percent of the state’s population in 2007, to 962,000, or 12.4 percent of the state’s population in 2008.
The decrease is most likely due to a significant increase in the number of people who received coverage through their employers, which went from 5.3 million in 2007 to 5.5 million in 2008.
* The country’s number of uninsured Americans has stayed about the same over the past two years, going from 45.7 million people, or 15.3 percent of the population in 2007, to 46.3 million, or 15.4 percent of the population in 2008.
Johnson said the numbers stayed relatively the same because while the number of people who had private insurance decreased, the number of people who had government-sponsored insurance increased and the two “basically offset each other.”
* The country’s median income dropped 3.6 percent over the past two years, going from $52,163 in 2007 to $50,303 in 2008. At the same time, the number of Americans living below the poverty line increased, going from 37.3 million in 2007 to 39.8 million in 2008. Johnson said these two changes reflect the country’s economic downturn, which started in December 2007.
gmclean@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2518
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