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American poverty fell in 2018 but more lack health insurance: US Census
WASHINGTON, Sept 11, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – More than a million Americans rose
out of poverty last year but household incomes stagnated and — for the first
time in nine years — the share of people with no health insurance crept
higher, officials reported Tuesday.
The annual snapshot offered a mixed portrait of prosperity in the year
after US Republicans slashed income taxes and as President Donald Trump moved
to undermine the health insurance system created by his predecessor Barack
Obama.
The numbers showed Americans are at last recouping painful losses from the
Great Recession of 2007 to 2009, but improvements may have stalled.
Individual worker wages are up and poverty is down but, after three years
of growth, households overall did not bring in higher incomes in 2018.
Meanwhile, government health coverage intended for the poorest Americans
weakened, notably affecting large numbers of children.
With unemployment holding near historic lows and wages rising, Trump has
hailed his economic agenda as a blessing for American workers even though
data suggests his trade wars are weighing on growth.
Republicans in last year’s mid-term elections faced angry waves of voters
who denounced attempts to dismantle the health coverage system known as
Obamacare.
Democrats seized on the report’s conclusions that coverage in public
health care had shrunk.
“President Trump’s cruel health care sabotage has left two million more
people without health insurance, forced to live in constant fear of an
accident or injury that could spell financial ruin for their families,” Nancy
Pelosi of California, speaker of the House of Representatives, said in a
statement.
Health care is again a dominant issue among Democratic presidential
candidates this year, with several calling for universal, state-run health
coverage.
According to the Census Bureau, the poverty rate fell in 2018 to 11.8
percent, or 38.1 million people, down 0.5 percent from 2017.
As a result, for the first time in 11 years, poverty was significantly
lower than 2007, the year before the Great Recession.
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– More kids without insurance –
Officials define poverty on scale of income thresholds for individuals and
families. In 2018, a family of four with two children and an income greater
than $25,465 would not be considered poor.
The American south was the only region not to see declining poverty last
year.
While American men continued to out-earn women, Trudi Renwick, a Census
Bureau economist, told reporters that 2018 had been a “fairly good year for
women,” noting that more had found full-time, year-round work and risen out
of poverty than did men.
But median household incomes stood at $63,200, meaning that in statistical
terms they were no higher than in 2007 or 1999, both years that immediately
preceded recessions.
Incomes for households headed by Asian-Americans, when adjusted for
inflation, rose, but were stagnant for non-Hispanic whites, blacks and
Hispanics, according to the Census Bureau.
Yawning wealth inequalities persisted but were largely unchanged from the
prior year: the top five percent of earners took in 23.1 percent of all
income on aggregate. More than half of all income went to the top 20 percent.
But the findings were most stinging on health insurance.
The share of Americans with no health coverage — which has fallen sharply
since Obamacare took effect in 2013 — rose to 8.5 percent, up 0.5 percentage
point over 2017.
The largest declines were under Medicaid — a government health insurance
program intended for the poorest Americans that has been central to extending
Obamacare benefits.
Trump, who failed in an effort to push through legislation that would have
gutted Obamacare, has since cut enrollment, advertising and outreach
programs.
The share of children without coverage rose, as it did for adults between
the ages of 35 to 64. There were also notable increases in the uninsured rate
for Hispanics of any race.
The Census Bureau found no apparent decline in the health coverage that
Americans receive through their employers, which is how most are insured.
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