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CNN Live Saturday

New Report Show 43 Million Americans Are Without Health Insurance

Aired October 04, 2003 - 14:47   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


LINDA STOUFFER, CNN ANCHOR: And taking a closer look now at the growing problem of the uninsured is Judy Feder. She joins us now from Washington. She is the Dean of public policy at Georgetown University.
Welcome, Judy. So glad you could be here.

JUDY FEDER, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: Glad to be here with you.

STOUFFER: First of all, how concerned are you about this problem?

FEDER: I'm very concerned. It's been an alarming increase in the number of people without health insurance; over 43 million people without it. When we look at the total numbers, more than two million people lost coverage between 2001 and 2002. It's truly alarming.

STOUFFER: What is it going to take to bring it to the nation's attention to really make it a hot issue? How does it affect the whole industry in a way that will get other people's attention?

FEDER: Well, what it does is affect people. People at all income levels are at risk of losing their insurance coverage when they lose jobs or when high health care costs and bad economic times cause employers to drop coverage.

People without health insurance coverage have hard times getting care. We know that they get less care. That they are sicker than other Americans. And that that raises everybody's attention to this enormously concerning situation.

STOUFFER: Plus, for some families it can truly be catastrophic, can't it?

FEDER: Absolutely. We really know that some people -- for example, if you think of someone who feels a breast lump, can't go see the doctor, gets diagnosed late, doesn't get treated, there's a greater likelihood of death. It is a really scary problem.

And even when such dire health circumstances don't occur, we know that health care costs are a leading cause of bankruptcies for families. So it is extremely alarming to be without health insurance, and this increase is numbers is a call to action.

STOUFFER: So, Judy, you've spent much of your career looking at possible solutions. What do we do? FEDER: Well, what's most important, I would argue, is that we need to recognize that we need public policy intervention, public policy action in terms of subsidies for people in order to secure their health insurance. Even -- we see this problem as grown in the last year. It would have been even worse, were it not for our public safety net, the Medicaid program, which primarily helps children and their moms when they're pregnant.

But we can do a much better job. Indeed, that program is in danger, because of the state's fiscal crisis. What we need is a commitment at the federal level to expand support, to strengthen both employer-based and public support to enable people to afford their health insurance coverage.

STOUFFER: And, Judy, we have a few seconds left. Are you hearing anything from candidates or politicians that you think addresses this in the right way?

FEDER: Well, we are hearing it. We hear that the Democratic candidates have all raised the health care issue. They've raised a critical question. That is, how do we want to invest our nation's resources? Do we believe in tax cuts that primarily benefit the better off, or do we believe in social investments necessary to secure health insurance for all Americans?

STOUFFER: A difficult situation there. Judy Feder with Georgetown University. Thank you very much for sharing some of your work with us.

FEDER: You're welcome.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com





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Aired October 4, 2003 - 14:47   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LINDA STOUFFER, CNN ANCHOR: And taking a closer look now at the growing problem of the uninsured is Judy Feder. She joins us now from Washington. She is the Dean of public policy at Georgetown University.
Welcome, Judy. So glad you could be here.

JUDY FEDER, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: Glad to be here with you.

STOUFFER: First of all, how concerned are you about this problem?

FEDER: I'm very concerned. It's been an alarming increase in the number of people without health insurance; over 43 million people without it. When we look at the total numbers, more than two million people lost coverage between 2001 and 2002. It's truly alarming.

STOUFFER: What is it going to take to bring it to the nation's attention to really make it a hot issue? How does it affect the whole industry in a way that will get other people's attention?

FEDER: Well, what it does is affect people. People at all income levels are at risk of losing their insurance coverage when they lose jobs or when high health care costs and bad economic times cause employers to drop coverage.

People without health insurance coverage have hard times getting care. We know that they get less care. That they are sicker than other Americans. And that that raises everybody's attention to this enormously concerning situation.

STOUFFER: Plus, for some families it can truly be catastrophic, can't it?

FEDER: Absolutely. We really know that some people -- for example, if you think of someone who feels a breast lump, can't go see the doctor, gets diagnosed late, doesn't get treated, there's a greater likelihood of death. It is a really scary problem.

And even when such dire health circumstances don't occur, we know that health care costs are a leading cause of bankruptcies for families. So it is extremely alarming to be without health insurance, and this increase is numbers is a call to action.

STOUFFER: So, Judy, you've spent much of your career looking at possible solutions. What do we do? FEDER: Well, what's most important, I would argue, is that we need to recognize that we need public policy intervention, public policy action in terms of subsidies for people in order to secure their health insurance. Even -- we see this problem as grown in the last year. It would have been even worse, were it not for our public safety net, the Medicaid program, which primarily helps children and their moms when they're pregnant.

But we can do a much better job. Indeed, that program is in danger, because of the state's fiscal crisis. What we need is a commitment at the federal level to expand support, to strengthen both employer-based and public support to enable people to afford their health insurance coverage.

STOUFFER: And, Judy, we have a few seconds left. Are you hearing anything from candidates or politicians that you think addresses this in the right way?

FEDER: Well, we are hearing it. We hear that the Democratic candidates have all raised the health care issue. They've raised a critical question. That is, how do we want to invest our nation's resources? Do we believe in tax cuts that primarily benefit the better off, or do we believe in social investments necessary to secure health insurance for all Americans?

STOUFFER: A difficult situation there. Judy Feder with Georgetown University. Thank you very much for sharing some of your work with us.

FEDER: You're welcome.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com





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