Nevada’s health insurance gets bad ranking

Monday, Oct. 4, 1999 | 11:28 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

That Nevada once again ranks among the worst states for health insurance coverage of its residents is no big surprise.

"That's not news -- we've been one of the worst states (for health insurance) for years, and it's a major problem," said state Sen. Dina Titus, who at the 1997 Legislature spearheaded a bill that enabled the state to better provide affordable health insurance for children.

"That is one of the reasons why we addressed the most vulnerable part of the population (two years ago), so that we could help the children," Titus, D-Las Vegas, said.

A survey released today by the U.S. Census Bureau found that Nevada tied New Mexico for fourth worst state with 21.1 percent of the population lacking health insurance.

The survey also found that about 44.3 million Americans -- one in six -- had no health insurance coverage in 1998, about the same proportion as a year earlier, the Census Bureau said.

Titus said the reason Nevada ranks so poorly is that a number of residents work multiple part-time jobs when they cannot find full-time work. Employers do not have to -- and generally do not -- provide health insurance for part-timers.

Titus said the problem also affects the welfare rolls, where recipients, fearful of losing Medicaid for them and their children, are reluctant to take jobs they want if those jobs do not provide health insurance.

Richard Urey, spokesman for Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said the congresswoman is addressing the issue by supporting one bill that will streamline federal rules for providing health insurance for children and another that will provide 100 percent tax deductibility for small businesses that provide insurance.

Urey said Berkley also supports the Medicare buy-in program in which people 55 to 64 years old can enroll in Medicare at a higher premium so that they have some type of coverage.

The Census survey found that Nevada went from 17.5 percent of the population being uninsured to the current level that is equal to New Mexico. The state still lags behind Texas at 24.5 percent uninsured and California at 22.1 percent.

The states with the lowest number of uninsured residents were Nebraska with 9 percent, Minnesota and Iowa with 9.3 percent and Vermont with 9.9 percent.

The survey found that nationwide the number of people without coverage grew by nearly a million, but overall population growth kept the rate of uninsured people steady -- 16.3 percent of the population in 1998, compared with 16.1 percent in 1997. In 1996, 15.6 percent of the nation's population lacked coverage.

"Those more likely to lack health insurance continue to include young adults in the 18- to 24-year-old age group, people with lower levels of education, people of Hispanic origin, those who work part time and people born in another country," said Jennifer Campbell, author of the Census report.

She said health-care coverage among children did not change significantly from 1997 to 1998, with 11.1 million, or 15.4 percent, of the under-18 population uninsured. Children aged 12 to 17 were slightly more likely to be without health-care coverage than those under 12 -- 16 percent, compared with 15.1 percent.

"Lack of health-care coverage has reached epic proportions," said Ron Pollock, executive director of the advocacy group Families USA. "With this new Census Bureau report, it is now imperative that all candidates for public office come up with specific proposals to address the growing national problem."

Jobs are the most common source of health insurance, with 70.2 percent of Americans covered by a private insurance plan provided either through the employer or union. Nonetheless, nearly half -- 47.5 percent -- of low-paid, full-time workers lacked health insurance in 1998.

The other major source of health coverage was the government through Medicare (13.2 percent of the population), Medicaid (10.3 percent) and military health care (3.2 percent). Many people carried coverage from more than one plan.

While Medicaid covered 14 million poor people, about one-third of all poor people, 11.2 million, had no health insurance.

Not surprisingly, higher-income Americans were most likely to have coverage. Only 8.3 percent of people in households with annual income of $75,000 or more lacked insurance, but the rate jumped to 25.2 percent in households with incomes below $25,000.

Foreign-born people were also more likely to lack coverage, at 34.1 percent, than native-born Americans, at 14.4 percent. Among Hispanics, 35.3 percent lacked health insurance.