Obama pounces on new health insurance figures

DENVER – Though new government figures show a slight decline in the number of people without health insurance, Barack Obama seized on the numbers to condemn President Bush and his would-be successor, John McCain.

With the struggling economy as perhaps the No. 1 issue in this year’s presidential campaign and polls showing voters trust Sen. Obama (D-Ill.) on economic issues more than Sen. McCain (R-Ariz.), the Democratic presidential hopeful has endeavored to keep the issue in the front of voters’ minds.

{mosads}“Today’s news confirms what America’s struggling families already know — that over the past seven years our economy has moved backwards,” Obama said.

The Census Bureau issued its annual report Tuesday on household income, the poverty rate and the rate of the uninsured. In 2007, for this first time this decade, fewer people lacked health insurance than the year before. Last year, 45.7 million people were uninsured, or 15.3 percent of the population. The previous year, 47 million people had no health insurance, or 15.8 percent of the population.

The poverty rate remained almost flat at 12.5 percent, 37.3 million people compared to 36.5 million in 2006, while median household income increased 1.3 percent to $50,233 in 2007, according to census data.

But despite these modestly favorable findings, Obama maintained those numbers illustrate serious problems in the economy that have not been resolved by Bush’s policies — policies, Obama said, that McCain would continue.

“Another 816,000 Americans fell into poverty in 2007 — including nearly 500,000 children — bringing the total increase in Americans in poverty under President Bush to 5.7 million," Obama said. "And on Bush’s watch, an additional 7.2 million Americans have fallen into the ranks of the uninsured. This is the failed record of George Bush’s economic policies that Sen. McCain has called ‘great progress.’”

On the uninsured, the liberal healthcare advocacy group Families USA backed up Obama’s claim that the reduction shown by the Census is insignificant. The uninsured population in 2007 was still larger than the combined population of 24 states and the District of Columbia, Families USA Executive Director Ron Pollack said at a briefing in Denver on Tuesday.

Moreover, Pollack maintained that a significant portion of those who gained coverage did so through government programs. “The public safety net really cushioned the blow,” he said, pointing to 1.3 million more people on Medicaid or the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, 1 million new Medicare beneficiaries and 400,000 more people receiving military health benefits.

Moreover, healthcare interest groups saw little to cheer about in the new uninsured figures. “While the Census Bureau reports a modest decline in the uninsured rate, this does not reduce the urgency of the crisis,” said Karen Ignagni, the president and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans.

Added Nancy Nielsen, president of the American Medical Association: “As members of Congress and presidential candidates gather at the conventions, it is vital that they address this important issue."