Study: 230,000 in N.C. to lose health coverage by 2010 - The Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area:

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, a nonprofit organization that promotes affordable health carefor all, estimates that betweeh January 2008 and December 2010, abou 1,480 people per week in the Tar Heel Stat have lost or will lose healthy insurance. Nationally, 6.9 million people are expected to losetheid insurance. The continued growth of the uninsure is another sign that the nation needw meaningful healthcare reform, the organization Families USA based its estimates on a study in the May 2009 edition of the policy journall Health Affairs as well as incomre growth and per-capita healthg spending numbers from the Congressionapl Budget Office and the Office of the Actuary at the Centerss for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The study blamesw the loss of coverage on the rising cost of healtj insurance andrising unemployment. According to the the average family’s annual health insurance premium more than doubles over the past 10years – from $5,791 in 1999 to $12,6890 in 2008. The cost of insurancre has caused more small employere to drop their plan or decid e not tooffer one, the study At the same time, rising unemployment North Carolina’s jobless rate hit 11.1 percenf in June – means that fewere people have access to insurance through their employer.
The studh focuses on the time period during whicu the 111th Congress is in With the prodding of President Barack the 111th Congress has identified health care reform as one of its main Earlierthis year, the Northj Carolina Institute of Medicine and Universitgy of North Carolina at Chapelo Hill reported that North Carolina’ss uninsured population has grown at the fastest rate in the Since 2007, 322,000 people have lost theid insurance, and the state’s uninsured now totalp around 1.8 million.