Local Data Shows One In Ten Adults Uninsured, Close To 5% Of Children, Southeastern Pennsylvania

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 24 Mar 2009 - 4:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   opinions  

Since 1991, Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC) has been tracking Southeastern Pennsylvania's uninsured population. Cover the Uninsured , a national awareness project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, reports 46 million Americans are uninsured-nine million of them children. As a part ofCover the Uninsured week (March 22 to 29) and Public Health Week (April 6 to 12), PHMC reveals data and trends from its 2008 Southeastern Pennsylvania (SEPA) Household Health Survey:

Overall picture for uninsured adults (ages 18-64) in SEPA:

- One in 10 adults--representing 237,400 residents--is uninsured
- Half of those currently uninsured have been so for the last six months (47.9%)
- One third (34.2%) of those currently uninsured have been so for over one year, and over half of these have been uninsured for more than two years
- Philadelphia has more than twice the prevalence of uninsured adults (15.8%) compared to Delaware (7.3%), Bucks (7%), Chester (5.8%) and Montgomery (5.4%) counties

Characteristics of uninsured adults in SEPA

- More than six in ten uninsured adults work-of these 142,400 adults, approximately two thirds work full-time
- Young adults (ages 18-29) comprise most of our uninsured population: one in five young adults is uninsured
- Men are more likely to be uninsured than women (11.2% and 8.7%, respectively)

Ethnicity, education and income factors of uninsured adults in SEPA

- Latinos (29.8%) are more than twice as likely to be uninsured compared to African Americans (14.5% ) and Asians (14.5%), and nearly five times more likely to be uninsured than whites
- One quarter of adults who do not have a high school diploma/GED are uninsured, compared to 14.6% who have a high school degree, 10.4% with some college, 4.7% with a college degree, and 3.1% with advanced degrees
- Adults living below 200% of the federal poverty level are over four times more likely to be uninsured than those living at or above 200% of the federal poverty level**

Uninsured children (under 18) in SEPA

Even though many programs in the nation offer health coverage for children, over nine million children are uninsured.

- 39,000 SEPA children (4.2%) are uninsured , an increase of more than 50% from the year 2000 when just 2.7% of children were uninsured
- Philadelphia has the highest proportion of uninsured children (5.1%), followed closely by Bucks (5.0%) and Delaware (4.6%) counties, Chester (3.5%) and Montgomery (1.8%) counties have the lowest percent of uninsured children in the region

Lack of insurance in SEPA: A critical barrier to care

How are the uninsured limited in their ability to seek health care for themselves and family members?

- No regular source of care: Having a regular source of care can improve continuity of care, ability to access care when needed, and possibly quality of care. Uninsured adults are more likely to lack a regular source of care than insured adults (37.3% compared to 8.7%, respectively)
- Past year health care visit: While the vast majority of insured adults have visited a medical provider, only 59.3% of uninsured adults have visited a medical provider
- Not receiving needed care due to cost: 43.8% of uninsured adults reported that they did not seek care due to the cost

While unemployment rates continue to rise and adults are losing health insurance coverage, Francine Axler, project director of PHMC's Community Health Data Base, believes we mayl see improvements in SEPA's coverage of uninsured children in the next few years. "This past February, the federally-funded State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP or CHIP) was reauthorized and expanded and may serve to decrease the proportion of children in the region who have no insurance," she says. PHMC's Community Health Data Base will track this possible improvement when conducting the next SEPA Household Health Survey in 2010.

About PHMC

Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC) is a nonprofit public health institute that builds healthier communities through partnerships with government, foundations, businesses and other community-based organizations. It fulfills its mission to improve the health of the community by providing outreach, health promotion, education, research, planning, technical assistance and direct services. Formerly the Philadelphia Health Management Corporation, PHMC has served the Greater Philadelphia region since 1972. For more information on PHMC, visit http://www.phmc.org.

**In 2008, federal poverty guidelines defined poverty level as a family of four with an annual household income at or below $21,200.

Source
Public Health Management Corporation

• Additional
• References
• Citations