December 07, 2006

56% of uninsured are ineligible for public programs

A study in Health Affairs shows that more than half of the nation’s uninsured are ineligible for public programs such as Medicaid but do not have enough resources to purchase coverage themselves.

In a Health Affairs news release, lead author Lisa Dubay, now a research scientist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said, "Sometimes you hear arguments that all but a small minority of the uninsured could either purchase coverage or are already eligible for assistance. But our study shows that the affordability problem is far more serious than that.�

This study was released more than a week ago and I have seen very little news coverage of it. There are 47 million uninsured Americans. It's the job of journalism to give voice to the voiceless, to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. It ain't happening on this issue.

Posted by schwitz at December 7, 2006 08:26 AM | TrackBack
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