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More S.C. Residents Go Without Health Coverage

Posted on September 15, 2011 by scjustice

From The Greenville News:

The Taylors Free Medical Clinic has seen a 25 percent increase in the number of people seeking health care over the past two years, sometimes getting so busy they must turn new patients away.

By Liv Osby | Staff Writer

1:17 AM, Sep. 14, 2011

The Taylors Free Medical Clinic has seen a 25 percent increase in the number of people looking for medical care in the past two years, a sign of the country’s ongoing economic pain.

“The number … continues to increase every day,” executive director Karen Salerno told greenvilleonline.com. “We are significantly over what we were this time last year, and there are weeks where have to cut off and say we can’t take any new patients.”

More Americans — including children — are falling into poverty and going without health insurance, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesday.

The real median household income in 2010 —$49,445 — dropped 2.3 percent from 2009, the Census reported.

And the official poverty rate was 15.1 percent, up from 14.3 percent a year earlier, the fourth consecutive annual increase and the largest number in 52 years, growing to 46.2 million last year, or 2.6 million more than in 2009.

The poverty rate for children, meanwhile, grew from 20.7 percent to 22 percent.

And the number of people without health insurance grew from 49 million to 49.9 million, despite growth in the number with government-sponsored coverage, according to the census.

“These numbers are not surprising, especially considering how poorly our economy is doing,” said Sue Berkowitz, director of South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center.

“This is not a good sign for South Carolina,” she said. “People are really hurting.”

Though final state numbers weren’t available, preliminary census data show that the number of uninsured in South Carolina grew from 16.8 percent in 2009 to 20.6 percent in 2010, or about one in five people. (more…)

Filed under: Affordable Care Act, Children's Health Insurance Program, Health Care Advocates, Health Care For Children, Medicaid | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Gov’t Lays Out Health Insurance Exchange Details

Posted on August 15, 2011 by scjustice

From Reuters:

By Alina Selyukh and Anna Yukhananov

WASHINGTON | Fri Aug 12, 2011 1:43pm EDT

(Reuters) – The government on Friday laid out incentives for states and people to participate in health insurance exchanges, including tax credits and funding grants for the states.

Health regulators also clarified how they expect states to determine who is eligible to join this program under President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul.

The exchanges are envisioned as open marketplaces of competing insurance plans that allow uninsured people and small businesses to band together to negotiate cheaper rates.

In the guidelines, released on Friday, the U.S. Health and Human Services and Treasury departments said states need to provide a “one-stop shop” system that can tell people what insurance programs and tax credits they’re eligible for — including federal/state Medicaid insurance program for the poor.

States, insurance companies, employers and patient groups have been awaiting these details because they are critical to establishing exchanges expected to be functional by 2014. (more…)

Filed under: Health Care Law Implementation, Understanding The New Law | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Advocates Take Health Care Fight To Main Street

Posted on August 4, 2011 by scjustice
From Politico:
The reliance on grass-roots activists is part strategic and part financial. | AP Photo

By MATT DOBIAS | 8/4/11 9:06 AM EDT

As Washington’s health care advocates steel for another push by Congress to rein in entitlement spending, their focus is less on K Street and more on Main Street, where a patchwork of activists stand ready to help — and for cheap.

For the many nonprofit advocacies working to shield Medicare and Medicaid from cuts — as well as the activists on the other side, who are pushing to slash spending — the reliance on grass-roots activists to pressure Congress is part strategic and part financial.

It is also a necessity. What many of the national health care advocacies lack in funding, or even access, is often offset with on-the-ground enthusiasm that funnels back to Washington.

Health care advocates again will have to mobilize those same forces. Over the next two weeks, congressional leaders will name 12 lawmakers — six Democrats, six Republicans — to a special supercommittee charged with finding hundreds of billions of dollars in health care savings.

“In many ways, this doesn’t change things,” said Ethan Rome, executive director of Health Care for America Now, which is likely to fight deep Medicare and Medicaid cuts. “It creates a new urgency and a new intensity. In a city that needs deadlines, this gives everyone a hard deadline to work within.” (more…)

Filed under: Health Care Advocates, Medicaid, Medicare | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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