Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Slow Economy Factor in Rise of Uninsured Americans

Aired November 27, 2002 - 07:42   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.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Used to be that you only worried about losing your health insurance if you lost your job. That is quickly changing. More and more middle-class Americans are losing their medical coverage, especially in small businesses.
We're going to look at the issue in today's edition of "Real People and Their Money."

Higher premiums, a rise in benefits required by the government mean that many business owners can no longer afford to cover themselves or their workers. It's estimated that some 40 million Americans did not have health insurance last year. Six million of them earned $75,000 or more a year. Group insurance premiums rose 11 percent in 2001 from the year before.

Those stats don't surprise Anna and Brian Brooks, who own a small electrical contracting business. They join us now live from Denver.

Welcome.

ANNA BROOKS, SMALL-BUSINESS OWNER: Welcome.

BRIAN BROOKS, SMALL-BUSINESS OWNER: Thank you. Good morning.

COSTELLO: You're laughing. You're not the working poor. Did you expect to have this problem with insurance?

A. BROOKS: Absolutely not. It's been...

COSTELLO: Tell us how it's affected your life.

A. BROOKS: Well, it affected it very slowly. Business started dropping, and of course, in Colorado, we have state mandates. We have 27 of them, mandated coverage that's on our policies, so the cost kept going up and going up, and we had a bad year. And it became a choice of, you know, do we invest in the insurance company, or do we invest in our own health?

COSTELLO: Right. And at one time, you had five employees in your business, including yourselves. And what did you have to do to be able to afford insurance benefits for your employees?

B. BROOKS: We just have to do enough business to cover all of the overhead costs of the insurances.

COSTELLO: You had to lay off some employees, didn't you?

A. BROOKS: Yes.

B. BROOKS: Well, that depends on business, too, the ups and downs of construction in general.

A. BROOKS: There was some attrition.

COSTELLO: Right, I understand. And your personal life, though, in order to still run your business, you had to cut your own insurance benefits, so to speak.

A. BROOKS: Yes, we are not covered by health insurance, and yes, we did shop around when the insurance went up to almost $1,000 a month. And my husband passed the age of 50, and that that's magic number. It's kind of like getting a bank loan, you know. It's a certain dollar amount that you have to have in your pocket before they'll loan it to you. And there's a certain amount of health, and he turned 50. He was on Lipitor for cholesterol problems, and I was on Cingular (ph) for breathing problems, and that really limited our options.

COSTELLO: So, you had to cut that out, because you just couldn't afford the insurance premiums to pay for those. And the only person in your family totally insured is your young child.

A. BROOKS: And she's not totally insured.

COSTELLO: Understand. So, is it worth it to continue your business? At some point, will the high cost of insurance premiums drive you out of business?

B. BROOKS: You've got to check that out every now and again to see where your costs are, and sometimes you do wonder about it. And you don't know, are they going to stay stable or are they going to keep going up?

COSTELLO: And one last question for you. Do you think the government is doing enough to help? What would you like to see the government do?

A. BROOKS: Well, in particular here, our legislature has really laid a lot of mandated benefits. I'm insuring single men and men over 50 and women over 50 who can't have children for maternity care. It's mandatory that I cover them for maternity care.

COSTELLO: Understand. I know that our...

A. BROOKS: And we would like to see association health plans. We would like to see options in gap policies. Our company is too small to qualify for a major medical policy by itself.

COSTELLO: Understand. Well, I understand legislators are working on that now, and my good luck to you.

A. BROOKS: Thank you.

B. BROOKS: Thank you. COSTELLO: Thank you, Brian and Anna, for joining us this morning.

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







Aired November 27, 2002 - 07:42   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Used to be that you only worried about losing your health insurance if you lost your job. That is quickly changing. More and more middle-class Americans are losing their medical coverage, especially in small businesses.
We're going to look at the issue in today's edition of "Real People and Their Money."

Higher premiums, a rise in benefits required by the government mean that many business owners can no longer afford to cover themselves or their workers. It's estimated that some 40 million Americans did not have health insurance last year. Six million of them earned $75,000 or more a year. Group insurance premiums rose 11 percent in 2001 from the year before.

Those stats don't surprise Anna and Brian Brooks, who own a small electrical contracting business. They join us now live from Denver.

Welcome.

ANNA BROOKS, SMALL-BUSINESS OWNER: Welcome.

BRIAN BROOKS, SMALL-BUSINESS OWNER: Thank you. Good morning.

COSTELLO: You're laughing. You're not the working poor. Did you expect to have this problem with insurance?

A. BROOKS: Absolutely not. It's been...

COSTELLO: Tell us how it's affected your life.

A. BROOKS: Well, it affected it very slowly. Business started dropping, and of course, in Colorado, we have state mandates. We have 27 of them, mandated coverage that's on our policies, so the cost kept going up and going up, and we had a bad year. And it became a choice of, you know, do we invest in the insurance company, or do we invest in our own health?

COSTELLO: Right. And at one time, you had five employees in your business, including yourselves. And what did you have to do to be able to afford insurance benefits for your employees?

B. BROOKS: We just have to do enough business to cover all of the overhead costs of the insurances.

COSTELLO: You had to lay off some employees, didn't you?

A. BROOKS: Yes.

B. BROOKS: Well, that depends on business, too, the ups and downs of construction in general.

A. BROOKS: There was some attrition.

COSTELLO: Right, I understand. And your personal life, though, in order to still run your business, you had to cut your own insurance benefits, so to speak.

A. BROOKS: Yes, we are not covered by health insurance, and yes, we did shop around when the insurance went up to almost $1,000 a month. And my husband passed the age of 50, and that that's magic number. It's kind of like getting a bank loan, you know. It's a certain dollar amount that you have to have in your pocket before they'll loan it to you. And there's a certain amount of health, and he turned 50. He was on Lipitor for cholesterol problems, and I was on Cingular (ph) for breathing problems, and that really limited our options.

COSTELLO: So, you had to cut that out, because you just couldn't afford the insurance premiums to pay for those. And the only person in your family totally insured is your young child.

A. BROOKS: And she's not totally insured.

COSTELLO: Understand. So, is it worth it to continue your business? At some point, will the high cost of insurance premiums drive you out of business?

B. BROOKS: You've got to check that out every now and again to see where your costs are, and sometimes you do wonder about it. And you don't know, are they going to stay stable or are they going to keep going up?

COSTELLO: And one last question for you. Do you think the government is doing enough to help? What would you like to see the government do?

A. BROOKS: Well, in particular here, our legislature has really laid a lot of mandated benefits. I'm insuring single men and men over 50 and women over 50 who can't have children for maternity care. It's mandatory that I cover them for maternity care.

COSTELLO: Understand. I know that our...

A. BROOKS: And we would like to see association health plans. We would like to see options in gap policies. Our company is too small to qualify for a major medical policy by itself.

COSTELLO: Understand. Well, I understand legislators are working on that now, and my good luck to you.

A. BROOKS: Thank you.

B. BROOKS: Thank you. COSTELLO: Thank you, Brian and Anna, for joining us this morning.

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