43
Bill would extend jobless benefits
Photo
U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Avon)
If unemployment insurance is not extended, some 64,500 Ohioans will exhaust their benefits by year’s end.
Nearly 400 Ohioans lose their health insurance every day, said U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, who is stumping for health-care reform he says will protect citizens who lose or switch jobs.
Additionally, Brown said during a teleconference Wednesday, he is co-sponsor of a bill to extend unemployment insurance for workers whose benefits will soon expire.
If unemployment insurance is not extended, some 64,500 Ohioans will exhaust their benefits by year’s end, he said.
Because nearly 62 percent of adults nationally get their health insurance through their jobs, those who lose their jobs in this depressed economy face the double whammy of also losing their health insurance, said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, which participated in the teleconference.
More than 158,000 Ohio adults under the age of 65 have lost their health coverage because of job loss in 2009, according to a new report released Wednesday by Families USA, a national organization for health care consumers.
The report, dubbed “One-Two Punch: Unemployed and Uninsured,” compares the percentage of uninsured adults in 2009 with the Census Bureau’s average annual percentage of uninsured adults for the three-year period of 2006-2008.
The Families USA report compares the percentage of uninsured adults in 2009 with the Census Bureau’s average annual percentage of uninsured adults for the three-year period of 2006-2008. According to the analysis, the percentage of uninsured adults in Ohio grew from 15 percent in 2006-2008 to a projected 17.2 percent in 2009.
Since most Americans get their health coverage through their job or that of a family member, higher unemployment periods result in more Americans’ joining the ranks of the uninsured. Temporary options such as COBRA and individual coverage are available, but they are often too expensive for Ohioans to afford, the Families USA report said.
Brown said health-care reform he supports will reduce the number of under-insured and uninsured. It also will provide choices, including a public option, which will inject competition where there is very little, and keep insurance companies honest and keep costs down, he said.
Layoffs affect not only a family’s financial security; they also can affect a family’s physical health, said Brown.
“That’s why we need to pass short-term solutions like an extension of unemployment insurance and long-term solutions like comprehensive health-insurance reform,” he said.
alcorn@vindy.com
UNEMPLOYED/UNINSURED
By the numbers
Unemployment in Ohio rose from an average of 6.5 percent in 2008 to an average of 10.3 percent in 2009, resulting in more uninsured. From January through August of this year, 158,300 Ohioans lost health-care coverage because of increased unemployment. More than 14,000 dislocated workers will lose unemployment insurance this month. The estimated number of workers in area counties who will lose benefits are:
Ashtabula: 156
Columbiana: 96
Jefferson: 47
Mahoning: 312
Trumbull: 305
Source: Ohio Department of Job and Family Services/Families USA