More Americans Are Going Without Health Insurance

The Bucks County Courier Times and Intelligencer has an article today about the increasing number of Americans going without health insurance in the wake of the recession. And in many cases, it's middle-class suburbanites who are turning to free clinics and other services for help:

More Americans have lost health care coverage, either temporarily or long-term, including those living in mostly middle-class suburbs.

During one recent week, four people with master's degrees entered the Bucks County Health Improvement Project Adult clinic looking for free medical care.

Of the average 90 new patients a month that clinic nurse practitioner and manager Cathy Giorgio sees, more are new college graduates and former white collar professionals seeking care in the Bensalem clinic that treats poor and uninsured Bucks County residents.

The newspaper also notes that more people with employer-provided health insurance are facing higher out-of-pocket costs and that Pennsylvania is second only to Michigan in the loss of employer-sponsored health insurance. Nearly 700,000 fewer Pennsylvanians received coverage from an employer in 2007 and 2008 than at the start of the decade.

Meanwhile, the report notes that public health program enrollment surged during the last half of the decade - nationally and locally. Read more here.