Cover the Uninsured Week Seeks to Address Access, Cost Concerns

Cover the Uninsured Week 2007, April 23-29, comes amid a growing unease among Americans about health care, according to recent research.

Several studies during the past two years indicate more moderate-income and middle-income families are joining the ranks of the uninsured. Health insurance premium increases are outpacing worker pay raises. Fewer employers are offering health benefits. Patients' shares of premiums, copayments and deductibles are rising. Medical costs are consuming a greater percentage of American families' income, and between 8 million and 9 million children have no health coverage.

Within the context of such data, Cover the Uninsured Week will focus on children and the need to reauthorize and adequately fund the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP.

"In reauthorizing SCHIP, Congress must provide the funds needed to maintain coverage for all currently enrolled kids and the millions more who are eligible, but remain unenrolled," said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., M.B.A., president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, in a March 14 news release on Cover the Uninsured Week. "We must ensure that children whose parents work hard, but cannot afford health insurance for their kids, can get the health care they need to thrive. For the last decade, SCHIP has provided a much-needed safety net for our nation's kids, especially as there has been a decline in the number of children in low-income families covered by employer-sponsored health insurance.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's study "Whose Kids are Covered? A State-by-State Look at Uninsured Children," (PDF file: 12 pages / 580 KB. More about PDFs.) which was released in March, reported that 47 percent of families earning $40,000 or less a year are offered employer-sponsored health insurance.

"The figures underscore that working parents who earn modest incomes are experiencing dramatic erosion in employee benefits," said the Cover the Uninsured Week news release.

Meanwhile, more Americans are listing health care as a top concern, according to several surveys. The most recent, a March 19 Harris poll conducted for the American Society for Quality, or ASQ, found that 85 percent of adults said they were concerned or very concerned about the cost of health care.

"In fact, health care costs overtake U.S. adults' concern for other hot button issues, including the war in Iraq (79 percent), the rising cost of fuel (80 percent) and the threat of global warming (61 percent)," said an ASQ news release about the survey. In addition, more than 27 percent of U.S. adults had not filled a prescription or had delayed a medical procedure due to expense, the poll found.

The survey echoes findings of previous polls, including

Family physicians are not without tools to combat the growing problem of uninsured Americans, however. Numerous resources are available on the Cover the Uninsured Week Web site that offer you ways to participate in activities designed to benefit the uninsured.

AAFP chapter executives also have materials to help you get your message out to the media and legislature. Contact your chapter office for access to those resources.