Millions lost health insurance coverage in 2002

Public programs helped prevent an even bigger increase in the uninsured.

By Joel B. Finkelstein, AMNews staff. Oct. 13, 2003.

Washington -- New figures from the U.S. Census Bureau show that 2.4 million Americans were added to the rolls of the uninsured in 2002, but experts say it could have been much worse.

The number of people lacking health coverage rose to 43.6 million in 2002, or more than 15% of the population.

The bureau's report also showed that 242.2 million Americans had health insurance last year, up 1.5 million from 2001. Many Americans lost private coverage because of job loss and a surge in health care costs.

The rise in the number of uninsured could have been much worse, even double what it was, had not public programs picked up some of the slack, said Leighton Ku, senior fellow in health policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Enrollment in Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program rose by nearly 4 million last year.

The growth in public coverage meant that the change among children without health insurance was not statistically significant from 2001 to 2002 in the Census Bureau survey.

"Although Medicaid coverage was able to offset the erosion in employer-sponsored coverage for many families, especially for children, large gaps remain for many more families," said Diane Rowland, executive vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation. "However, we may also have seen the high point of Medicaid enrollment."