Map of uninsured shows North Country doing OK
Screen image of interactive map of uninsured Americans by the New York Times (zoomed in to Canton, NY)
A map released today by the New York Times shows, by county, the percentage of people without insurance across the United States. It’s pretty amazing, and the map shows that the North Country, relatively, is doing pretty well: Unlike other areas throughout the country (particularly it seems in the west and also in Alaska), where up to 40 percent aren’t insured, we’re keeping it under 12 percent and, in some areas, as low as 7.2 percent.
Here’s the list of our local counties:
Franklin County has 11.9 percent without insurance;
In St. Lawrence County, 11.3 percent of the population is uninsured;
Lewis county has 10.8 percent uninsured;
10.7 percent uninsured in Washington County.
Warren county has 10.4 percent uninsured.
Herkimer has 10.3 percent;
Essex County has 9.7 percent uninsured.
Jefferson County has 9.5 percent uninsured.
In Clinton County, 7.2 percent don’t have insurance.
Seven percent are uninsured in Hamilton County.
It’ll be interesting to see how these numbers change as the Affordable Care Act rolls out.
Tags: affordable care act, health, health care, insurance, map, new york
In a place like Alaska I wonder if there is really a point to having insurance. If there are few or no health care providers what is the point? You get sick, or you get hurt, you die, end of story.
Survey says, once again, Hamilton County one of the better places to live and work in the Adirondacks.
Says a lot about our priorities. An 11.8% unemployment rate would be considered unacceptable. An 11.8% uninsured rate is considered “ok.”
Yeah, Brian, in Franklin County that means more than six thousand people are uninsured– one serious illness away from bankruptcy. Doesn’t sound all that good to me.
Those who don’t have health insurance should go to the state web site and sign up.
I helped a relative do it and it took only a half hour to do it.
Once we get to the point where more folks have insurance you are still going to have a considerable number of people who will still be very costly to the system. Many people will never seek preventative care. Many people simply don’t go to the doctor until it is too late. Not because they don’t have insurance but because that is a very common behavior. Then when they do go to the doctor they don’t tell him or her what is wrong.
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/31/health/major-medical-mystery-why-people-avoid-doctors.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
This seems to be very common even in places where they have universal healthcare:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/06/cancer-warning-signs-doctors-patients_n_1324708.html
We could probably improve our health care costs considerably if we tackle this issue.
Mandatory checkups?! I don’t see how else you’d handle it.
What do you have in mind?