Health insurance ranks fall further
Report finds 1 million in state lack coverage
About 1 million people across Washington now lack health insurance, according to a new state report released Monday.
It’s a trend that’s been on the rise for years, forcing families into bankruptcy and pinning residual debts of more than $1 billion on hospitals and clinics, said Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler.
In his report, Kreidler called the numbers “a grim milestone” that will only deteriorate for two more years before federal health reforms take effect. The ranks of the uninsured grew in 31 of the state’s 39 counties between 2008 and 2011.
“The numbers are bad,” he said, “but there is hope.”
Kreidler, an elected Democrat who supports health reform, said the numbers of uninsured residents in Washington will reach 1.1 million by the end of 2013.
He said at least 800,000 of those uninsured residents will gain coverage in 2014, either through expanded Medicaid guidelines or subsidies designed to soften the cost of insurance for those who don’t qualify for Medicare and earn up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level.
One aspect of health reforms is already working. About 25,000 young adults have taken advantage of an early reform law provision that allowed parents to insure a child through age 26.
In Whitman County, for example, the number of uninsured residents has dropped, Kreidler said, in part because so many more college students at Washington State University are now covered on their parents’ insurance plans.
The report found that Spokane’s uninsured rate of 13.5 percent in 2011 was below the overall state average of 14.5 percent.
Most counties with urban populations, including King, Pierce, Thurston, Clark and Spokane, have uninsured rates below average.
Counties with the highest uninsured rates – 20 percent and higher – were east of the Cascades and included Yakima, Grant, Franklin, Adams and Okanagan.