Fitzsimon File

Most polls that ask people what issue they are most worried about or what problem they want elected officials to address find health at the top of the list or close to it. No wonder. Health care costs continue to rise. The number of people without health insurance is growing, now more than 1.3 million in North Carolina, including 180,000 children.

People with insurance face higher co-pays and deductibles every year, and many stay in their current job because of the fear of losing coverage. Insurance companies aren’t required to cover mental illness in North Carolina and many don’t, adding to the state’s struggles with mental health reform. Small businesses constantly claim that it is difficult for them to provide coverage for their employees.

Given all that talk, it’s surprising that the latest data about the uninsured from the Sheps Center for Health Sciences Research at UNC-Chapel Hill received such little attention.

The study finds that the percentage of North Carolinians under 65 who did not have health insurance increased from 15.3 percent in 2000 to 17.2 percent in 2005. Those numbers are disturbing, but have been reported before. What makes the Sheps Center report so interesting is that it is broken down by county and legislative district.

Wake County has the lowest percentage of insured, at 13.4 percent. Tyrrell County the highest, with 27.5 percent of people with no insurance.  Thirty-two counties have more than 20 percent of their residents uninsured.

That might account for why the General Assembly is considering so many health care proposals this session. The House will vote early this week on setting up a high-risk insurance pool to make it possible for people with chronic illness to afford basic coverage.

Rep. Verla Insko wants to cover every child in North Carolina by setting up a sliding scale to let families who earn up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level buy into a state plan. Families who make too much to qualify can still participate by paying the full premium for their child.

The right wing market worshippers are beside themselves about that, as they are about virtually any role for the government helping people meet their basic needs. At this past weekend’s right-wing love fest in Raleigh, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani offered the usual stale talking points from the anti-government handbook of fear, calling suggestions for universal health care “socialized medicine,” that would turn health care over to bureaucrats.

That not only ignores the fact that government programs like Medicaid have dramatically lower administrative costs than private health care plans, it is also out of step with what the people in the South now believe.

An Elon University Poll released two months ago found that more than 56 percent of people surveyed in Southern states supported a “national insurance plan paid for by the federal government,” while 33 percent opposed it. The support remained at that level even when the next question pointed out the government-run universal health care system would be “funded by the taxpayers.”   

People have heard enough red-baiting and realize that government must play a major role in making health care available to everyone.  Some national politicians have responded but not many in North Carolina have, preferring instead talk about health care in the safest of terms.

Lt. Governor Beverly Perdue said in Wilson recently her priority is to encourage people to live a healthy lifestyle, a noble enough initiative, but not one that will do much for the uninsured.

At the very least, lawmakers should pass the high-risk pool, Insko’s plan for children, and mental health parity to end the legal discrimination against the mentally ill. Then they should focus on the parents of the children who are currently not covered.

The Sheps Center Data ought to be a help there, breaking down the percentages of the uninsured by legislative district. Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight represents a district where 19.9 percent of the population is not insured and 20.5 percent of the people represented by House Appropriations Co-Chair Rep. Jim Crawford don’t have coverage.  

Legislators tell us all the time they are in Raleigh to represent the interests of their constituents. Tackling the problem of the uninsured is a good way for them to live up to that pledge. Everybody in their districts deserves to be able to see a doctor.

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This entry was posted on Monday, April 30th, 2007 at 2:40 pm and is filed under Fitzsimon File. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.