Americans in Poverty, Lacking Health Coverage Rise (Update2)

[fearnobush]

Americans in Poverty, Lacking Health Coverage Rise (Update2)

(Adds researcher's comment in fourth paragraph.)

By Kristen Hallam and Timothy W. Doyle
Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) -- The number of Americans living in
poverty climbed to 35.9 million last year and the ranks of people
without health insurance rose to a record, a government report
showed.
The Census Bureau said a 45 million Americans lacked health-
care coverage last year, 1.4 million more than in 2002 and almost
one in six people. The number of poor expanded by 1.3 million to
one in eight, according to the report.
Employers cut medical benefits last year as insurance
premiums jumped at six times the rate of inflation, the most
since 1990. The poverty rate has been climbing since hitting a 26-
year low in 2000, partly because of the recession in 2001, the
Census Bureau said. The median household income held at $43,318
last year after dropping for two years.
``Health insurance coverage is likely to continue to erode,
and it is unclear whether there will be substantial improvements
on the poverty and income fronts,'' said Robert Greenstein,
executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities,
in an e-mailed statement. The Washington research group's funding
sources include the Ford Foundation. ``This uncertainty reflects
ongoing softness in the labor market.''
The U.S. economy lost 61,000 jobs last year. Three out of
five Americans get medical coverage through an employer, said
Heather Boushey, an economist with the Center for Economic and
Policy Research in Washington.

Companies Cut Benefits

Employers such as Procter & Gamble Co., Honeywell
International Inc. and Pitney Bowes Inc. shifted more of the cost
to workers, who paid on average 50 percent more last year than
they did in 2000, the last year the number of uninsured Americans
fell, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, based in Menlo
Park, California.

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<http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=acOa78aQqz0I&refer=us>

[kestrel91316]

1. See? See? The economy is REALLY improving!!!!!!! n/t

[alittlelark]

2. I'm sooo happy!!!!

I thought it wasn't doing too well, what with all the people around me complaining!!

Viva B*sh - seig heil.

I am soooo glad that the media has told me that all is well!:-) :D

[True_Blue]

3. Those tax cuts for the rich really helped the economy

I'm one of the one in eight that went from middle class to poor. Come to think of it I was poor when Bush Sr and Reagan were in office too. When Clinton was president, I had a decent paying job and bought a house.

[wellst0nev0ter]

4. Is That A Trickle Down Or A Golden Shower I See?