Group says number of uninsured continues to rise

Analysts at a private Iowa think tank say they’re worried by a trend involving health insurance revealed by the release of new census data. Elaine Ditsler with the Iowa Policy Project says the number of uninsured Iowans has slowly gone up.She says that’s the area of most concern, the increasing rate of unisurance. She says where eight percent where uninsured five years ago — today it’s 10 percent. Ditsler says the increasing cost of insurance has led more businesses to drop their employee coverage. She says since 1999 the Iowans with health insurance from their job dropped from 70 to 65 percent. She says there’s been about the same drop in job-based health insurance as there has been an increase in uninsured Iowans. Ditsler says things would have been even worse had it not been for government provided health insurance that some people were able to get after losing their job-based insurance.Ditsler says the number of uninsured is likely to go higher unless something is done with health insurance costs. She says, “There’s really no end in sight to the increase in health insurance premiums and its going to take something, a more comprehensive solution, and a more deliberate solution for us to see a reversal in the number of uninsured Iowans.” Ditsler says the increasing cost of health also impacts those who have insurance coverage, as the insurance increases eat away at any wage increases those workers gain.