Number of uninsured skyrockets 4.3 million to record 50.7 million in 2009
Big leap points to urgency of enacting single-payer Medicare for all: national doctors’ group
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sept. 16, 2010
Contact:
Quentin Young, M.D.
Olveen Carrasquillo, M.D.
Margaret Flowers, M.D.
Mark Almberg, PNHP, (312) 782-6006, mark@pnhp.org
Local physicians in almost all 50 states available for comment (See historical table of uninsured by state below).
Official estimates by the Census Bureau showing a dramatic spike of 4.3 million in the number of Americans without health insurance in 2009 – to a record 50.7 million – underscore the urgency of going beyond the Obama administration’s new health law and swiftly implementing a single-payer, improved Medicare-for-all program, according to Physicians for a National Health Program, a 17,000-member physician group.
The Census Bureau reported that 16.7 percent of the population lacked health insurance coverage in 2009, up from 15.4 percent in 2008, when 46.3 million were uninsured.