PHOENIX (Jon Kamman, Arizona Republic)
August 31, 2005 - Arizona's poverty rate and its proportion of residents
who have no health insurance showed some backsliding according to Census
Bureau figures released Tuesday.
In the short term, there were no dramatic changes. But over a five-year period, a picture emerged of Arizonans making little progress in climbing out of poverty, fending off health care costs and keeping abreast of inflation.
A leading demographer questioned the reliability of the figures and said the state probably isn't performing as poorly as the figures might suggest.
Arizona State University researcher Tom Rex said the survey is believable on a national level, but because of limited sampling in each state, results on that level can be skewed.
Still, the data are the most up-to-date available. Among the findings were:
• Poverty is embedded and gradually rising. One in seven people in Arizona was living at or below the federal poverty line in the latest period, measured in two-year increments.
• Both the number and proportion of Arizonans without health insurance are inching upward. Nearly 1 million people, or more than one in six state residents, had no health insurance. That was 38,000 more than in 2002-2003.
• Median household income rose about $800 in the state to nearly $42,000 in 2004, but the gains in the past five years have been far below the pace of inflation.
One telling statistic was that the median household income in Phoenix actually fell by some $200 in the past five years. Because of 13 percent inflation in that period, median income would have had to rise more than $5,300 just to stay steady.
Rex said the increase in poverty data surprised him.
"It should have dropped," he said, citing the state's healthy recovery from the recession early in the decade. "It doesn't make sense for it to go up.
"It's the old story that you can't trust the numbers."
Poverty levels are set by the federal government according to family size. They range from $12,335 for two persons to $36,520 for a family with eight or more children.
In health care coverage, the state ranked low, at 41st in the nation.
The 17.1 percent of Arizonans who had no health insurance in 2004 was an increase of one-tenth of a percentage point from the previous period. It represented the addition of 38,000 people to the state's uninsured rolls.
The near-steady level was accomplished only through a major increase in government-based insurance, notably a surge in Medicaid enrollments but also including Medicare and military coverage.
Since 2002, Arizona's version of Medicaid, known as the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, has swollen in enrollment by 70 percent, to just over 1 million people.
Nationally, the survey of some 77,000 households in the spring showed that the number of uninsured rose 800,000, to 45.8 million, as private insurance provided by employers eroded. Although the workforce grew, the number of people covered by employer health plans remained virtually unchanged nationally.
"I think this country is going to have to face the issue that having health care insurance through employers just isn't working," Rex said. "It means a lot of people don't have insurance."
Hispanics, who have the nation's highest rate of uninsured, made no progress in gaining coverage in 2004. Just under one-third of Hispanics, or 13.7 million people, had no health insurance, an increase of 500,000 from 2003.
The absence of coverage is an opportunity for insurers to tailor products to that market, said Edmundo Hidalgo, an executive of Chicanos por la Causa, a statewide economic development organization. "A lot of people don't understand insurance and get very few invitations to join programs," Hidalgo said. "The demand is there."
The census survey found an extreme shortfall in health insurance among Hispanic immigrants. Of those who came to this country within the past 10 years, more than 60 percent were uninsured in 2004. The study made no distinction between legal and undocumented immigrants.
"Their legal status doesn't affect their need for health care," Hidalgo said. Making insurance available to anyone, regardless of status, would be a boon to hospitals and health care organizations, which now have to write off the costs when uninsured people show up in emergency rooms, he said.
In median household income, the amount at which half the households have more income and half less, the estimate for Arizona was $41,995 annually, compared with $44,389 nationally.
The 2004 figure for the state represented an increase of roughly $1,600 from 1999, but if the increase had kept pace with inflation, it would have been more than $5,000.
In Phoenix, the median household income fell by about $200 in the past five years, to $41,025.
The latest figure far surpasses that of Philadelphia, which has a population slightly higher than Phoenix's 1.4 million.
Philadelphia was listed as ranking sixth-lowest among large cities, at $30,631.
In the short term, there were no dramatic changes. But over a five-year period, a picture emerged of Arizonans making little progress in climbing out of poverty, fending off health care costs and keeping abreast of inflation.
A leading demographer questioned the reliability of the figures and said the state probably isn't performing as poorly as the figures might suggest.
Arizona State University researcher Tom Rex said the survey is believable on a national level, but because of limited sampling in each state, results on that level can be skewed.
Still, the data are the most up-to-date available. Among the findings were:
• Poverty is embedded and gradually rising. One in seven people in Arizona was living at or below the federal poverty line in the latest period, measured in two-year increments.
• Both the number and proportion of Arizonans without health insurance are inching upward. Nearly 1 million people, or more than one in six state residents, had no health insurance. That was 38,000 more than in 2002-2003.
• Median household income rose about $800 in the state to nearly $42,000 in 2004, but the gains in the past five years have been far below the pace of inflation.
One telling statistic was that the median household income in Phoenix actually fell by some $200 in the past five years. Because of 13 percent inflation in that period, median income would have had to rise more than $5,300 just to stay steady.
Rex said the increase in poverty data surprised him.
"It should have dropped," he said, citing the state's healthy recovery from the recession early in the decade. "It doesn't make sense for it to go up.
"It's the old story that you can't trust the numbers."
Poverty levels are set by the federal government according to family size. They range from $12,335 for two persons to $36,520 for a family with eight or more children.
In health care coverage, the state ranked low, at 41st in the nation.
The 17.1 percent of Arizonans who had no health insurance in 2004 was an increase of one-tenth of a percentage point from the previous period. It represented the addition of 38,000 people to the state's uninsured rolls.
The near-steady level was accomplished only through a major increase in government-based insurance, notably a surge in Medicaid enrollments but also including Medicare and military coverage.
Since 2002, Arizona's version of Medicaid, known as the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, has swollen in enrollment by 70 percent, to just over 1 million people.
Nationally, the survey of some 77,000 households in the spring showed that the number of uninsured rose 800,000, to 45.8 million, as private insurance provided by employers eroded. Although the workforce grew, the number of people covered by employer health plans remained virtually unchanged nationally.
"I think this country is going to have to face the issue that having health care insurance through employers just isn't working," Rex said. "It means a lot of people don't have insurance."
Hispanics, who have the nation's highest rate of uninsured, made no progress in gaining coverage in 2004. Just under one-third of Hispanics, or 13.7 million people, had no health insurance, an increase of 500,000 from 2003.
The absence of coverage is an opportunity for insurers to tailor products to that market, said Edmundo Hidalgo, an executive of Chicanos por la Causa, a statewide economic development organization. "A lot of people don't understand insurance and get very few invitations to join programs," Hidalgo said. "The demand is there."
The census survey found an extreme shortfall in health insurance among Hispanic immigrants. Of those who came to this country within the past 10 years, more than 60 percent were uninsured in 2004. The study made no distinction between legal and undocumented immigrants.
"Their legal status doesn't affect their need for health care," Hidalgo said. Making insurance available to anyone, regardless of status, would be a boon to hospitals and health care organizations, which now have to write off the costs when uninsured people show up in emergency rooms, he said.
In median household income, the amount at which half the households have more income and half less, the estimate for Arizona was $41,995 annually, compared with $44,389 nationally.
The 2004 figure for the state represented an increase of roughly $1,600 from 1999, but if the increase had kept pace with inflation, it would have been more than $5,000.
In Phoenix, the median household income fell by about $200 in the past five years, to $41,025.
The latest figure far surpasses that of Philadelphia, which has a population slightly higher than Phoenix's 1.4 million.
Philadelphia was listed as ranking sixth-lowest among large cities, at $30,631.
