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Friday, September 29, 2000



Isles slip in
health insurance
coverage

State officials say the
situation will improve
as the economy recovers


By Helen Altonn
Star-Bulletin

Hawaii's "healthiest state" reputation is slipping as the number of medically uninsured residents grows.

Last year, 11.1 percent of the island population had no medical insurance -- up from 10 percent in 1998 and 7.5 percent in 1997, according to Census Bureau data.

State officials said, however, that the situation will improve as Hawaii's sick economy recovers.

"It's not startling at all to anybody who knows what's happening in Hawaii," said Alvin T. Onaka, acting chief and state registrar of Hawaii's Office of Health Status Monitoring.

Nationally, the number of people without health insurance fell for the first time since the Census Bureau began compiling the data in 1987 -- a trend attributed to America's economic boom.

"Since we didn't benefit from the boom, one wouldn't expect a large decline in our uninsured," Onaka said.

"We can kind of quibble -- is it 10, 9 or 11 (percent). But for me, over time, the trend is what is important," he said.

State surveys also show an increase in the uninsured, he said. "We would like it to decline ... but it is consistent with the economic picture in Hawaii."

Susan Chandler, state Human Services director, said the statistics are "a little bit unfair" because Hawaii has so few people without health insurance to begin with.

"We're still the No. 1 state in coverage."

And things are getting better, she said, noting that welfare rolls are going down, more people are employed and more are working longer hours, entitling them to health benefits.

With employer mandates for health benefits for workers and the federal government's state Children's Health Insurance Program, she said, "We have a good design to do as well as we can."

The Legislature also gave the state Health Department another $1 million last year for the medically uninsured, she said.

Hawaii was one of 16 states that had higher numbers of medically uninsured people last year, according to the Physicians for a National Health Program, which supports universal health care.

Data released by the Census Bureau shows about 42.5 million people, or 15.5 percent of the population, lacked insurance for all of 1999, compared with 44.2 million, or 16.3 percent, in 1998.

The number of uninsured children fell by 1.5 percentage points to 10 million, or 13.9 percent, according to the bureau's annual report on health insurance coverage in America.

Analysts cited two major reasons for the drop: more employers offering health coverage to lure or keep workers in a tight labor market and healthy economy, and the Children's Health Insurance Program, enacted by Congress in 1997 to assist low-income families.



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