Uninsured up 17,000 in CT last year

The new Census figures on health insurance released today show that CT’s uninsured rate was up to 10% last year. 343,000 state residents were without insurance, including 44,000 children. The really stunning finding is that private employer-based coverage was down by 107,000. Thankfully government coverage picked up more people, about evenly split between Medicaid and Medicare. This continues a trend in CT and the nation of shifting coverage from private employer-sponsored plans to public programs. And without health reform, things are not likely to get better soon – family premiums in CT grew over 7 times faster than median earnings from 2000 to 2008. Click here for our latest policymaker issue brief on the new numbers.
Ellen Andrews