Families Usa

Because health insurance and employment go together, this year's devastating job losses have likely increased the ranks of the uninsured by four million people, including nearly 200,000 in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The estimate is provided by Families USA, a Washington organization that focuses on consumer health care and supports improvements. "People who receive a pink slip experience a double whammy," Ron Pollack, Families USA executive director, said yesterday during a telephone news conference about the group's analysis of census and unemployment data.

This may be the nation's capital, but it's hard to ignore the resemblance to Disneyland sometimes. How else to explain an ambulance bearing a 10-foot electric sign circling the Capitol? In the weirdest stunt yet devised to help promote President Clinton's health-care plan, supporters have constructed a "health security meter" to dramatize the number of Americans losing health-insurance coverage. The meter, mounted on an ambulance, was scheduled to begin lighting up numbers last night the moment Clinton finished his health-care address to a joint session of Congress.

More than a fifth of Pennsylvanians under the age of 65 have a diagnosed, preexisting medical condition that might make it difficult or impossible to buy individual health insurance on the private market, the consumer group Families USA said Friday. It said 2.3 million people under 65 have preexisting conditions such as cancer, lung disease, or diabetes. The numbers likely are low because some people, especially those who are uninsured or underinsured, may have health problems they don't know about, said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA. The group estimated that 44.7 percent of Pennsylvanians age 55 to 64 have preexisting conditions.

A report released yesterday crunches some numbers to confirm what most of us already probably knew: The cost of our health insurance is going up much faster than our pay. According to Families USA, a Washington nonprofit group that advocates for affordable health care, between 2000 and 2009 the cost of a family premium provided by an employer increased 95.2 percent while median income went up just 17.5 percent. To make matters more galling, workers get fewer benefits plus higher deductibles and co-pays for the extra money.

Workers who have been laid off since Sept. 1 should expect to receive letters starting tomorrow from their former employers telling them how to get health insurance for less money. "Saturday is a very critical deadline" for employers, Kathleen Stoll, executive director for Families USA, an advocacy group for affordable health care, said yesterday. Under this year's federal economic-stimulus law, employers must notify laid-off employees that they can buy COBRA insurance, or company-sponsored health insurance, with a 65 percent subsidy for nine months.

More than a fifth of Pennsylvanians under the age of 65 have a diagnosed, preexisting medical condition that might make it difficult or impossible to buy individual health insurance on the private market, the consumer group Families USA said Friday. It said 2.3 million people under 65 have preexisting conditions such as cancer, lung disease, or diabetes. The numbers likely are low because some people, especially those who are uninsured or underinsured, may have health problems they don't know about, said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA. The group estimated that 44.7 percent of Pennsylvanians age 55 to 64 have preexisting conditions.

Workers who have been laid off since Sept. 1 should expect to receive letters starting tomorrow from their former employers telling them how to get health insurance for less money. "Saturday is a very critical deadline" for employers, Kathleen Stoll, executive director for Families USA, an advocacy group for affordable health care, said yesterday. Under this year's federal economic-stimulus law, employers must notify laid-off employees that they can buy COBRA insurance, or company-sponsored health insurance, with a 65 percent subsidy for nine months.

Five out of six older Americans cannot afford private insurance to cover nursing-home care, according to a new study that found those most needing coverage - the oldest - can least afford it. "Only the very richest elderly can afford the premiums," according to the report issued yesterday by Families USA, a nonprofit foundation that focuses on issues of concern to the elderly poor. Only 16 percent of the 22 million people 65 years or older can afford long- term health insurance, the study said.

Here are some leading groups lobbying on health-care reform and their interests: American Association of Retired Persons, 601 E St. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20049; (202) 434-2277. The AARP supports guaranteed coverage for all, requiring all employers to pay for workers' insurance, and expanded benefits for the elderly, including long-term care and Medicare coverage of prescription drugs. It has 33 million members. American Medical Association, 515 N. State St., Chicago, Ill. 60610; (312)

More than one-fifth of Pennsylvanians below the age of 65 live in families that will spend more than 10 percent of their income on health care in 2008, Families USA, a Washington nonprofit organization, said yesterday. Nationally, nearly one-quarter of Americans under 65 - 61.6 million people - fall into that category. More than four-fifths of them have health insurance, said Families USA, which describes itself as nonpartisan. Ron Pollack, the group's executive director, said the numbers showed why health care has catapulted into a top domestic political issue.

More than a fifth of Pennsylvanians under the age of 65 have a diagnosed, preexisting medical condition that might make it difficult or impossible to buy individual health insurance on the private market, the consumer group Families USA said Friday. It said 2.3 million people under 65 have preexisting conditions such as cancer, lung disease, or diabetes. The numbers likely are low because some people, especially those who are uninsured or underinsured, may have health problems they don't know about, said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA. The group estimated that 44.7 percent of Pennsylvanians age 55 to 64 have preexisting conditions.

More than a fifth of Pennsylvanians under the age of 65 have a diagnosed, preexisting medical condition that might make it difficult or impossible to buy individual health insurance on the private market, the consumer group Families USA said Friday. It said 2.3 million people under 65 have preexisting conditions such as cancer, lung disease, or diabetes. The numbers likely are low because some people, especially those who are uninsured or underinsured, may have health problems they don't know about, said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA. The group estimated that 44.7 percent of Pennsylvanians age 55 to 64 have preexisting conditions.

"I believe this place needs an energy boost. " - Karen Pollard, general manager of the Shops at Liberty Place retail atrium in Center City, on store vacancies "There's no more 'la-dee-da, green is wonderful.' " - Calli Schmidt, spokeswoman for the National Association of Home Builders, on buyers' back-to-basics expectations "Given that the global economy is still in the early days of recovery, this was an extraordinary end to the year. " - Google Inc. chief executive officer Eric Schmidt, on the company's nearly $2 billion in fourth-quarter profit "They are taking away the pot of cash, and without that cash, there can't be a trickle-down effect.

Because health insurance and employment go together, this year's devastating job losses have likely increased the ranks of the uninsured by four million people, including nearly 200,000 in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The estimate is provided by Families USA, a Washington organization that focuses on consumer health care and supports improvements. "People who receive a pink slip experience a double whammy," Ron Pollack, Families USA executive director, said yesterday during a telephone news conference about the group's analysis of census and unemployment data.

A report released yesterday crunches some numbers to confirm what most of us already probably knew: The cost of our health insurance is going up much faster than our pay. According to Families USA, a Washington nonprofit group that advocates for affordable health care, between 2000 and 2009 the cost of a family premium provided by an employer increased 95.2 percent while median income went up just 17.5 percent. To make matters more galling, workers get fewer benefits plus higher deductibles and co-pays for the extra money.

Workers who have been laid off since Sept. 1 should expect to receive letters starting tomorrow from their former employers telling them how to get health insurance for less money. "Saturday is a very critical deadline" for employers, Kathleen Stoll, executive director for Families USA, an advocacy group for affordable health care, said yesterday. Under this year's federal economic-stimulus law, employers must notify laid-off employees that they can buy COBRA insurance, or company-sponsored health insurance, with a 65 percent subsidy for nine months.

Workers who have been laid off since Sept. 1 should expect to receive letters starting tomorrow from their former employers telling them how to get health insurance for less money. "Saturday is a very critical deadline" for employers, Kathleen Stoll, executive director for Families USA, an advocacy group for affordable health care, said yesterday. Under this year's federal economic-stimulus law, employers must notify laid-off employees that they can buy COBRA insurance, or company-sponsored health insurance, with a 65 percent subsidy for nine months.

In June, Gov. Rendell called on Senate Republican leaders to strike a deal on expanding health insurance for the uninsured before the end of the budget season. No dice. He repeated his plea in the waning days of the legislative session last month. No way. Yesterday, Rendell - armed with new figures on the uninsured, and buoyed by the presidential election of universal-health-care advocate Barack Obama - asked the Senate to return to the Capitol to take action on his health-care proposal before the end of the year.

EVERY DAY, two Pennsylvanians die from lack of health insurance. This depressing fact is one of the main findings of a study by Families USA, which looked at Pennsylvania in their first-ever, state-level study of the impact of health insurance - or rather, its absence. In 2006, they estimate that more than 700 people died due to lack of health insurance; in the span between 2000 and 2006, the number was 4,800. And across the country, twice as many people died from lack of health insurance as die from homicide.

A vote expected today in Harrisburg on a health-care plan to cover thousands of the state's uninsured could come too late for many of them. In fact, nearly two working-age people without health insurance are predicted to die prematurely each day while awaiting the expansion of coverage sought by Gov. Rendell. Does that sound overly dramatic? Not for those Pennsylvanians whose lack of health insurance increases their risk of early death roughly 25 percent. That's a finding in a recently updated study by the Institute of Medicine that shows the nation's inability to provide affordable health insurance becomes a life-and-death struggle for the uninsured with late diagnoses of disease and other health woes.