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Changes in Health Insurance Coverage During the Economic Downturn: 2000-2002. This report documents the factors that led the number of uninsured Americans to increase by 3.8 million during the 2000-02 time period. The chief reason for the increase was the loss in employer-sponsored insurance (ESI), which occurred because of a decline in employment overall. Another cause was a shift in where individuals were employed, with many going from sectors which tend to have higher levels of ESI such as manufacturing to sectors which tend to have lower levels of ESI such as the service industry. Other factors included a shift in employment from larger companies to smaller firms or self-employment, and rising health insurance premiums. All of the increase in the uninsured occurred among adults, especially low-income adults. The extent to which the loss of employer coverage resulted in an individual becoming uninsured depended on their access to public programs: Children were more likely than adults to gain public coverage; women more likely than men and parents more likely than non-parents. Changes in Coverage State Experience with Enrollment Caps in Separate SCHIP Programs. National Academy for State Health Policy: As many states experience budget deficits, officials have implemented a variety of cost-cutting measures within their SCHIP programs, according to an issue brief by Cynthia Pernice and David Bergman of NASHP. The brief examines the experiences of six states that have implemented caps or frozen enrollment, created waiting lists and open enrollment periods under their SCHIP programs. Enrollment Caps Health Spending Projections Through 2013. Health Affairs: U.S. health spending will grow from $1.8 trillion, or 15.5% of the gross domestic product, in 2004 to $3.4 trillion, or 18.4% of GDP, by 2013, according to new figures from the federal government published in a report by Health Affairs. The report notes that hospital spending growth is expected to fall from a peak of 9.5% in 2002 to 6.5% in 2004; prescription drug spending growth will fall from a peak of 19.7% in 1999 to 12.9% in 2004; and growth in private health plan premiums will fall from 11.4% per member in 2002 to 7.1% per member in 2005. Health Spending Projections
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