(The AFL-CIO circulated the following news release on August 27.)
Today’s Census Bureau report should alarm all Americans concerned about the economic policies that are driving our country in the wrong direction. Working families are bearing the brunt of economic policies clearly intended to benefit corporate special interests.
While last year’s poverty rate rose to 12.5 percent and median household income fell more than $1,500 between 2000 and 2003, the share of people with employment-based health coverage fell to 60.4 percent, the lowest level in 10 years. Nearly three-quarters of a million more full-time workers had no health insurance coverage in 2003 than in 2002. Fueled by unsustainable, rising health care costs, the deterioration in work-based health coverage is driving the percentage of individuals without insurance ever higher – to 15.6 percent in 2003.
The new numbers also paint a troubling picture of the economic situation of working families in many states. In Pennsylvania, median household income dropped more than $1,130. Incomes also fell sharply in Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon and Wisconsin. The health care crisis is worsening as the number of uninsured rose in Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio and Oregon. In Nevada alone, the uninsured rate is above 19 percent.
We must take bold and immediate steps to reverse course and ensure the good jobs with health care and retirement security that working families need.