PORT JEFFERSON, NY -– This past Sunday marked the beginning of Uninsured Week in Suffolk County, an annual recognition of the societal and economic costs associated with not having adequate medical coverage.  In 2003, Suffolk County made the designation for this second week in March following the adoption of legislation authorized by Legislator Vivian Viloria-Fisher (D-Setauket). The annual survey of more than 2,000 companies also found that 40% of small-business employees enrolled in individual health plans pay annual deductibles of $1,000 or more. That's almost twice the number who paid that much in 2007.”  This, while some health insurance companies have raised premiums by up to 39% in a single year.

“We begin this seventh Uninsured Week just as we have each and every year since 2003,” Viloria-Fisher said.  “With the number of uninsured increasing, health care costs rising and premium payments becoming unsustainable for too many Americans.  I join President Obama’s call to get health care reform ‘done’ to save tens of millions of our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, neighbors and strangers from being one illness away from ruin.” 

In the 2003 Suffolk County legislation, it was noted that 14.6% of the United States population lacked health insurance; at that time the number of uninsured was 41.2 million.  By 2008, that number had jumped to 46.3 million, according to the United States Census Bureau.  With the “Great” Recession that began in 2007, it seems that the situation has only grown worse for million of Americans.  According to a report commissioned by Families USA, during 2007 and 2008 one out of three Americans under the age of 65 had lost health insurance at some point during that span.  That one out of three figure translated to 86.7 Million people who found themselves and their families unprotected from both minor and catastrophic illness and injury. 

President Obama Reminds us that every day 14,000 Americans wake up in the morning covered by a health insurance policy but go to bed that very same day without one.  Moreover, 5,000 Americans, many of whom have medical insurance, lose their homes every day due to a medically related bankruptcy.

Since 1999, the cost of health care premiums has increased by 131%.  In Viloria-Fisher’s 2003 legislation, it was cited that premiums had increased by 12.7% in 2002 from the previous year alone.  From 2008 to 2009 the average cost of a family plan rose from $12,680 to $13,375 per year. 

While premiums have steadily increased over the years, so too have member deductibles.  According to USA Today, “

“We cannot let another year go by without action.  No longer is the lack of health care coverage just the biggest heath related issue before the American people, but it is quickly becoming one of the biggest economic draws as well,” Viloria-Fisher concluded.  

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