WDC Utah is looking at how new health care policies - nationwide and here in Utah - really impact us:
Young Adults
2.5 millions young Americans gain health coverage
The Salt Lake Tribune Dec. 14, 2011
"Using unpublished quarterly statistics from the government’s ongoing National Health Interview Survey, analysts in Sebelius’ policy office determined that nearly 36 percent of those age 19-25 were uninsured in the third calendar quarter of 2010, before the law’s provision took effect.
That translates to more than 10.5 million people.
By the second calendar quarter of 2011, the proportion of uninsured young adults had dropped to a little over 27 percent, or about 8 million people.
The difference - nearly 2.5 million getting coverage - can only be the result of the health care law, administration officials said, because the number covered by public programs like Medicaid went down slightly."
Impoverished
Half of all Americans are poor or low-income _ The Salt Lake Tribune.pdf
The Salt Lake Tribune/Associated Press Nov. 15, 2011
“Safety net programs such as food stamps and tax credits kept poverty from rising even higher in 2010, but for many low-income families with work-related and medical expenses, they are considered too ‘rich’ to qualify,” said Sheldon Danziger, a University of Michigan public policy professor who specializes in poverty."
"Following the recession that began in late 2007, the share of working families who are low income has risen for three straight years to 31.2 percent, or 10.2 million. That proportion is the highest in at least a decade, up from 27 percent in 2002, according to a new analysis by the Working Poor Families Project and the Population Reference Bureau, a nonprofit research group based in Washington.
Among low-income families, about one-third were considered poor while the remainder undefined 6.9 million undefined earned income just above the poverty line. Many states phase out eligibility for food stamps, Medicaid, tax credit and other government aid programs for low-income Americans as they approach 200 percent of the poverty level."
