Maine Health Insurance: Many lost coverage 2007 to 2008

A new report released today takes a different perspective on Maine's uninsured population. Most studies are a snapshot of how many Mainers are uninsured at a given time. But the report from Families USA, an advocacy group pushing for universal health care, looked at how many people lost their health coverage from 2007 through 2008 - a far higher number.

"There were approximately 280,000 people in the state who were uninsured at some point in that two year period," says Ron Pollack, Executive Director of Families USA. "That constitutes more than one out of every four people in the state under 65 years of age, and more than two thirds of them were uninsured for at least six months."

"Just looking at people who are uninsured for a full year doesn't tell the full picture of the impact and harm to consumers on an everyday basis," says Joe Ditre Director of the Maine advocacy group Consumers for Affordable Health Care, which runs a help line for people struggling to get health coverage. "We have people who have called us who have lost their job for just one month, sometimes less, and had an illness that they could not take care of that resulted in medical bills during the period that they were uninsured that they are now in bankruptcy over."

More than three-quarters of Maine's uninsured are working. People such as 34-year-old Tera Cooley of Buxton, who holds down part-time jobs as a receptionist and sales representative for a marketing company. Cooley moved back to Maine from Los Angeles at the end of last year to be with her family.

To cut down costs, she's living with her siblings right now, but she still doesn't have enough money to pay for her thyroid medication or the bridge work she needs for her teeth. "You know, I'm doing my best to survive but it's definitely very difficult not having health insurance and having health issues, and knowing that basically that I'm not properly caring for myself because I don't have health insurance and I simply don't have the money to spend several hundred dollars on my tests and my meds and everything right now."

Stories like Cooley's can be heard throughout the state. But on the whole, Maine's uninsured rate is considerably lower than most other states -- 10.5 percent, compared to a national average that's seven points higher, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

A report released this week by the Foundation shows that the number of uninsured Mainers fell by more than 22,000 from 1994 to 2007. One of the things Maine has done in that period is increase the number of people eligible for health insurance through the state's Medicaid program.

But, says Democratic Maine Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, "There's nobody in Maine I don't think who feels consoled anymore knowing that we have a slightly higher rate of coverage when most people have a story at some point in their life, if not right now, of falling between the cracks and just going uninsured, or those who have insurance kind of worry everyday if they're going to be able to keep paying for it."

Pingree says she's excited about President Obama's decision to include $630 billion in his budget to finance health care reform, calling it a "serious downpayment for affordable health care." Congress is expected to begin debating the president's budget next week.