Saving by Insurance

13% here lack health insurance

The federal government has painted its first current, town-by-town portrait of the uninsured in America, and it's not a pretty picture here in Lancaster County.

More than 65,000 county residents lacked health insurance coverage last year, according to the new U.S. Census Bureau snapshot released Tuesday amid a contentious national debate over President Barack Obama's health-care proposals.

That's 13.1 percent of our 500,000-strong population, roughly 1 in 8 people. Lancaster has the third-highest number of uninsured people among Pennsylvania's most populous counties. Statewide, 9.4 percent are without health insurance coverage.

The American Community Survey estimates are the first annual census data on health care at the local level. At the county level, they show a much higher number of uninsured than last year's estimate by the state Insurance Department.

"It certainly reflects changes in a recession-driven economy," said Rosanne Placey, a spokeswoman for the insurance department, which has seen a dramatic increase in the number of low-income residents seeking Adult Basic subsidized insurance.

"If you look at our basic wait list, that has grown significantly in the last year. We now have more than 300,000 people on the waiting list, and we are able to serve fewer than 50,000," Placey said.

At Project Access of Lancaster County, a two-year-old program that provides free medical care to residents who do not qualify for other insurance programs and who meet certain financial guidelines, the number of people seeking help also has risen.

"We are getting a lot of folks on unemployment. Whether it's that or the word has gotten out that we're out here, it's taking us about four to six weeks to get back to folks because of the number of applications we have," said Lisa Riffanacht, the program's executive director.

Since October 2007, Project Access has provided more than $9.6 million in donated medical services during 14,426 visits by patrons.

Other local health officials say they are not surprised the number of uninsured has passed the 60,000 mark.

"That's similar to the number we've been floating around. We've been looking at over 60,000 as the guideline," said Jim Kelly, executive director of SouthEast Lancaster Health Services, a city clinic that sees Medicaid and low-income patients.

But answering the question of why Lancaster's rate of uninsured is so high compared to other counties is more difficult.

Kevin W. McCullough, the senior research coordinator for the Pennsylvania State Data Center, cautioned that the findings might not vary widely at the county level.

The differences, for example, between Lancaster's County 13.1 percent uninsured and Lawrence County's 13.0 percent uninsured could be within the census' margin of error.

He also pointed out that the census survey provided insurance-coverage estimates for the nation's cities and counties above 65,000 in population only.

That means only 39 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties made it.

The Census Bureau's annual American Community Survey asked the health insurance question for the first time last year. The ongoing survey of about 3 million addresses every year provides one of the most complete pictures of our population available.

Specifically, it found:

' 65,138, or more than 13 percent of Lancaster County residents, lacked health insurance coverage in 2008. Of those, 20,862 were children and teens under age 18; 42,480 were adults; and 1,796 were senior citizens.

' Only Philadelphia County, at 14.1 percent, and Crawford County near Erie, at 14.4 percent, had higher levels of uninsured residents. Bucks County, north of Philadelphia, had the lowest level of uninsured residents, at 5.9 percent.

' Statewide, nearly 1.2 million, or 9.4 percent, didn't have health insurance. Nationwide, more than 45 million, or 15.1 percent, didn't have coverage.

' Pennsylvania had the eighth-lowest percentage of uninsured residents of all 50 states. The state with the highest level of uninsured was Texas, at 24.1 percent. The state with the lowest number was Massachusetts, at 4.1 percent.