2.6 million more people into poverty

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The first year of recession took a toll on household incomes, drove 2.6 million more people into poverty, and cost 1 million people their employer-provided health care, the government reported Thursday.

Real median household income fell 3.6% in 2008 to $50,303, while the number of people living in poverty rose by 2.6 million to a record 39.8 million, or 13.2% of the population, up from 12.5% in 2007, the Census Bureau said. Read the full report.

Real median incomes had risen for three straight years before the dropoff in 2008. The decline in median incomes in 2008 was similar to that seen in the past two recessions, but less than in the years around the 1974 and 1982 recessions

In a finding sure to resonate with the debate on health-insurance reform, the government reported that the number of Americans without health insurance at any time during the year climbed by 800,000 to 46.3 million, or 15.4% of the population. The percentage of uninsured was unchanged from 2007 and has been essentially unchanged since 1991.

The number of people receiving employer-provided health care fell by 1 million to 176 million, while the number under government-funded health-care rose by 4.4 million to 87.4 million. About 25 million have private insurance not provided by an employer.

About 21 million people worked full-time but had no health insurance.

The number of children without health insurance fell to 7.3 million, the lowest since 1987, when the data were first collected. Fewer than 10% of children were uninsured, while 20% of adults under 65 were uninsured. Fewer than 2% of people over 65 were uninsured.

Nearly half of noncitizens were uninsured, accounting for about one-fifth of the total uninsured.

Rex Nutting is Washington bureau chief of MarketWatch.

Bilibala comments:
Poor & needy people are normally the one who suffer the most in recession and benefit the less in times of recover (hurt by inflation with less or even none of salary increase).
If we can free up our hand & some of our money to offer support, we should do so.