All about business

Maria Gomez knows firsthand the devastation that can hit families that lack health insurance.

Gomez is chief executive of Mary’s Center for Maternal and Child Care in the District of Columbia. The clinic serves Latinos who either have no insurance or are underinsured.

The fact that 47 million people in this country — including 9 million children — are uninsured has been one of the top issues in the current presidential campaign.

Equally troubling is this statistic: The lack of health care coverage is most acute among Hispanics and African-Americans, many of whom work in low-wage jobs without benefits or are employed by small businesses that don’t offer coverage.

"Things are getting worse," Gomez said. "What we are seeing is a lot of people coming in who cannot qualify for government programs."

These families earn too much to qualify for free care but don’t make enough to pay for insurance, she said.

Thirty-six percent of Hispanics are uninsured, compared with 22 percent of African-Americans, 17 percent of Asian/Pacific Islanders, and 13 percent of whites, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s most recent analysis.

If you have adequate health insurance and are inclined to think this issue doesn’t affect you, let me assure you that it does. The cost of insurance for those with coverage is escalating in part because the number of uninsured Americans keeps rising, said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a nonprofit, national organization that advocates for high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans.

Using data from the Census Bureau, the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the National Center for Health Statistics, Families USA determined that the unpaid expenses for the uninsured added an average of $922 in 2005 to the premiums for employer-provided family health insurance http://payday-faxless.com. That extra cost could rise to $1,502 in 2010, the group found.

If you have insurance, you know how the costs hit your wallet. Increasingly, employers are shifting a larger portion of their premiums to employees. You may be able to afford your policy today but it’s possible you may not in the future.

Premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance rose an average of 6.1 percent in 2007, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust. Since 2001, premiums for family coverage have increased 78 percent.

It may be easy to dismiss the uninsured, especially minority families. But these people are the workers and caregivers who provide needed services.

"This is a problem for all of us. Eighty percent of people who are uninsured are working and some at more than one job. They deserve to have health care coverage," said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The foundation sponsors "Cover the Uninsured Week" (www.covertheuninsured.org), a campaign that runs this year from April 27 to May 3. The campaign highlights the plight of the uninsured.

singletarym@washpost.com

2008, WASHINGTON POST WRITERS GROUP

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