Number of Uninsured Health Care Workers Increased 83% Between 1988 and 1998, Report Says

The number of uninsured health care workers nationwide increased 83% from 1988 to 1998, according to a study in the March issue of the American Journal of Public Health, USA Today reports (Appleby, USA Today, 3/28). Harvard Medical School researchers examined health insurance trends for health care workers using data from yearly March supplements of the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey, which contains information about coverage from a "nationally representative sample of noninstitutionalized U.S. residents." Researchers found that:

Some 1.36 million health care workers employed in 1998 lacked health coverage.
The proportion of uninsured health care workers rose from 8.4% of the industry's workforce in 1988 to 12.2% in 1998.
In 1998, 1.12 million uninsured children, or 10.1% of all uninsured U.S. children, lived in households with a health care worker.

Researchers point to decreasing coverage rates in the "growing private-sector health care workforce" and "declining health employment in the public sector" -- which offered coverage to a greater number of workers than the private sector -- for the uninsured increase (Case et al., American Journal of Public Health, March 2002). The study adds, "Insurance coverage has diminished for virtually every health occupation in every type of institution, suggesting a widespread deterioration in the quality of health care jobs." E. Richard Brown, director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, said, "Here we are denying health benefits to hundreds of thousands who provide health care services to other people who have insurance. There's something inequitable and unjust about that" (USA Today, 3/28). This is part of the Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.

Number of Uninsured Health Care Workers Increased 83% Between 1988 and 1998, Report Says

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