According to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau's annual report on income, poverty and health insurance, the number of people without health insurance increased to 16.7 percent in 2009, up from 15.4 percent in 2008 -- the first time the number of people with health insurance dropped since record-keeping began in 1987.
“The numbers show us that one in six Americans don’t have health care, and that number is largely due to people losing their jobs,” explained the New America Foundation’s Health Policy Program Director, Kavita Patel, in an interview with WTOP. “What health reform will do, although it will take a couple of more years to see some of these changes, is give people some options to buy insurance that is affordable.”
“I know that talk of repeal is something that sounds very interesting as a campaign slogan or a sound bite,” Dr. Patel continued, “but that is not really going to solve the problem. The irony of all of this is that the same things that are distressing us with these numbers that came out today are the very things that we passed health reform to solve.”
Listen to the full interview here.
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