Posted on 09/16/2019 3:08:44 PM PDT by spintreebob
When the Census Bureau reported an increase in the number of people without health insurance in America, it sent political partisans reaching for talking points on the Obama-era health law and its travails. But the new numbers suggest that fears of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown may be a more significant factor in the slippage.
Overall, the number of uninsured in the U.S. rose by 1.9 million people in 2018, the agency report this past week. It was the first jump in nearly a decade. An estimated 27.5 million people, or 8.5% of the population, lacked coverage the entire year. Such increases are considered unusual in a strong economy.
The report showed that a drop in low-income people enrolled in Medicaid was the most significant factor behind the higher number of uninsured people.
Hispanics were the only major racial and ethnic category with a significant increase in their uninsured rate. It rose by 1.6 percentage points in 2018, with nearly 18% lacking coverage. There was no significant change in health insurance for non-Hispanic whites, blacks and Asians.
“Some of the biggest declines in coverage are coming among Latinos and noncitizens,” said Larry Levitt of the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, who tracks trends in health insurance coverage. “These declines in coverage are coming at a time when the Trump administration has tried to curb immigration and discourage immigrants from using public benefits like Medicaid.”
Health care is the defining issue for Democrats vying for their party’s 2020 presidential nomination. Candidates wasted no time in Thursday’s debate highlighting the split between progressives such as Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren , who favor a government-run system for all, including people without legal permission to be in the country, and moderates like former Vice President Joe Biden. He supports building on the Affordable Care Act and adding a new public plan option, open to U.S. citizens and legal residents.
Although the candidates did not dwell on the uninsured rate, Democratic congressional leaders have said the census figures show the administration’s “sabotage” of the Obama health law.
The administration issued a statement blaming the law’s high premiums, unaffordable for solid middle-class people who do not qualify for financial assistance. “The reality is we will continue to see the number of uninsured increase until we address the underlying issues in Obamacare that have failed the American people,” the statement said.
While the report found an increase in the uninsured rate among solid middle-class people the Trump administration wants to help, there was no significant change in employer coverage or in plans that consumers purchase directly. Those are the types of health insurance that middle-class workers tend to have. Other patterns in the data pointed to an immigration link.
Health economist Richard Frank of Harvard Medical School said the data “suggest that we are dealing with immigration ... potentially in some unexpected ways.” Frank was a high-ranking health policy adviser in the Obama administration.
The uninsured rate for foreign-born people, including those who have become U.S. citizens, also rose significantly, mirroring the shift among Hispanics.
Frank noted that immigrant families often include foreign-born and native-born relatives, “and you can imagine the new approach to immigration inhibiting these people from doing things that would make them more visible to public authorities,” such as applying for government health care programs.
Immigrants’ fears may also be part of the reason for a significant increase in the number of uninsured children in 2018, said Katherine Hempstead, a senior health policy expert with the nonpartisan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which works to expand coverage. Among immigrant children who have become citizens, the uninsured rate rose by 2.2 percentage points in 2018, to 8.6%. The increase was greater among kids who are not citizens.
“There are a lot of kids eligible for public coverage but not enrolled because of various things that make it less comfortable for people to enroll in public coverage,” said Hempstead.
The administration’s “public charge” regulation, which could deny green cards to migrants who use government benefits such as Medicaid was finalized this year. But other efforts to restrict immigration, including family separations at the U.S.-Mexico border, were occurring in the period covered by the report.
“People are interpreting ‘public charge’ broadly and even though their kids are eligible for Medicaid because they were born in this country, they are staying away,” said Hempstead. Children’s coverage often follows their parents’ status.
Other factors could also be affecting the numbers:
—The report found a statistically significant increase in solid middle-class people who are uninsured. Health care researcher and consultant Brian Blase, who until recently served as a White House adviser, said it appears to reflect people who cannot afford high ACA premiums. Blase said Trump policies rolled out last year should provide better options for this group. The changes include short-term health insurance plans, health reimbursement accounts and association health plans.
—Experts are debating the impact of a strong job market on the decline in Medicaid enrollment. It’s possible that some Medicaid recipients took jobs that boosted their earnings, making them ineligible for benefits. But if those jobs did not provide health benefits, then the workers would become uninsured. The Census Bureau report showed no significant change in workplace coverage.
Unemployment among Hispanics is at an all time low, and far more so among Mexicans than Cubans or Puerto Ricans.
Most of the legal immigrants I know-no matter where they are from-are a self-sufficient, hard-working bunch of people who prefer to do things for themselves and don’t want any government in their personal lives-they also pay their taxes, homeschool their kids and don’t get welfare, but this is the middle of BFE where people can live off-grid if they choose to, so I can’t speak for people in cities, where dependency is encouraged...
I was taught from childhood that having a healthy strong immune system, knowing about/using natural remedies and avoiding all drugs except antibiotics when an injury was serious enough, doing physical work, not abusing my body with overindulgence in alcohol, and eating only fresh, unprocessed food would contribute to a healthy, active life, however many years it lasted-so far so good.
Most people out here where I live are doing what I do-working, running a business with no thought of quitting, ever, working out, being physically active and eating good fresh food that we produce-but that is easy to do out here in BFE-not so much in a city or burb-my compadre and employer says that knowing when you call 911 that the ambulance and EMTs are 30-45 minutes away keeps us working safe and healthy-and knowing the sheriff will take that long to arrive keeps us armed and ready to take care of ourselves.
Don’t know if it is relevant or not, but more than 1/2 of us are of Hispanic ancestry and have lived in the country most of our lives, but there are no mojados here-they are not tolerated-we don’t hire them or want them around...
I eat a very healthy diet...pure foods, no over processing, nothing added that doesn’t belong. The store I do best at, finding these foods at reasonable prices, is the local grocery store most favored by the nearby immigrant communities. The schools are doing recent immigrants a great disservice when the feed their children the trash that passes for food in school meals.
The last time any welfare workers came out here to offer government “help” to us poor, stupid rural deplorables was in 2003-they booked our community center bldg on a Saturday afternoon to give their sales pitch on everything “free” from free child care-even though most moms out here homeschool and work a home based business-to foodstamps/EBT cards and government cheese-even though everyone grows, sells and barters fresh veggies, eggs, dairy-and grass fed meat is sold at several butcher shops/locker plants-they insulted people by bringing a translator-everyone speaks English and most of us speak Spanish as a 2nd language-they only got about 10-12 people who left without signing up for anything, so they wasted their time. They never came back, either...
1.9 million illegals on Medicaid huh?
We have a local grocery store like that 16 miles away in the county seat-those of us who are into organic and natural food shop there, rather than driving 25 miles to the big chain grocery in the town of 6000 and pay more for “organic” or “grass fed” that probably isn’t-most of the veggies and all of the meat at the local store is produced in Texas. Also, the tourists who eat that way buy from the local store in the county seat-the food is less expensive and really is organic...
You are dead right about the school lunches-it is garbage-the few parents who still have kids in public school that I know pack their kids’ lunches so they don’t eat the frankenfood-one of my neighbors claims the pot bellied pigs she raises will not eat anything from the school cafeteria...
Well said and I agree 100%
FMCDH(BITS)
Fixed it.
Yep, all the way through this tear jerker I noticed how they danced around the fact that the “uninsured” are illegally in this country & entitled to nothing other than a bus ride to the border.
We do not owe these people anything. Nothing. Nada.
It is ironic that the same people who gave us Obungo Care and [deliberately] impoverished the working middle class are so damn concerned about illegals. They really like to poke us in the eyes, don’t they?
Maybe 1.9 million anchor babies on CHIPS. But under 50,000 illegals nationwide on Medicaid.
Check out the number of so called refugees on Medicaid. They are in a separate category from legals and illegals within the Medicaid system.... different AID CATEGORIES specially set aside for refugees. So easy to get FOIA on them.
Have you ever visited an emergency room at a hospital? Around here, they're full of latinos, all sick or ill with various ailments. And most of them are non-payers receiving medical treatment. It's rare to see whites, asians or blacks in emergency waiting rooms. The others go to regular medical offices. The latinos flood the emergency rooms for the most minor ailments, because they know they'll be treated for free.
Shouldn’t the article refer to ILLEGAL ALIEN INVADERS rather than “immigrants “. Bad writing, poor editing, political agenda BS. FAKE NEws.
The term "illegal alien" has been banned by Pelosi and her liberal buddies. But we know exactly what they're referring to when they mention "immigrants". Liberals are butchering the English language, and it isn't poor editing but is political and fake. I hate what they're doing. These people invading our country are not immigrants, they're illegal alien invaders, as you put it. I wish they could be caught and executed. Harsh? Not when you consider how evil the liberals are becoming. They are out to destroy good social norms, and will not hesitate to kill us in the near future.
I’ve been in 4 hospitals recently with my own health issues. The only Hispanics I saw was a Doctor and an attendant.
I’ve lived with them all of my adult life. I’ve rented apartments to hundreds of them and lived with them in my apartments. In knocking door to door and in my job as an insurance inspector/invesitgator I’ve known thouands of them casually.
My person experience is consistent with all the statistics.
You must live in Alaska. I live in South San Francisco, and have had to go to many hospitals in San Francisco and the peninsula. Hispanics are everywhere in the emergency waiting rooms. A couple years ago I waited three hours to get treated for an animal bite, at Seton Medical Hospital emergency room in Daly City. Three hours. Because it was full of mostly hispanics getting treated. Last year me and my family waited an hour for my granddaughter to get treated for a head wound at Kaiser Hospital's emergency room in SSF, 9 stitches. Again, the emergency room waiting room was jammed with hispanics. Similar experiences in SF. I think maybe you are being untruthful, or live in an all-white area. Around here, there are lots of illegals.
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