Number of Uninsured Increases
Thursday, July 02 2009
by Rose Hoban
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New numbers from the National Center for Health Statistics show that in 2008 about one in five people were uninsured, and one in four were uninsured for part of the year.
Mark Holmes from the North Carolina Institute of Medicine says North Carolina's rate of uninsured tends to be a little higher than the national average. "We've become accustomed to 1.5 million, 1.4 million, 1.6 million... it picks up every year and we say, it's gone up a point or two," Holmes says. "But when people really think about what this means for almost 20 percent of North Carolina residents who don't have health insurance and are just one twisted ankle away from a multi-hundred dollar bill--you know, these can really underscore the need for access to quality care."
Holmes says these numbers come from throughout 2008 and don't yet reflect the effect of the economic downturn. He says he's hearing from doctors and hospitals that requests for free care are up sharply since late last year.
