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CENSUS-POVERTY Aug-27-2004 (910 words) xxxn
U.S. Catholic officials worried by rise in number of poor, uninsured
By Agostino Bono
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The steady rise in the number of poor people in the United States and those without health insurance challenges the nation to a nonpartisan reassessment of its priorities, said a Catholic expert in health care issues.
"These are chronic ills that have plagued our society for decades -- through both Democratic and Republican administrations," said Father Michael D. Place, president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association.
Father Place was commenting on the Aug. 26 release by the U.S. Census Bureau of its annual report on income, poverty and health insurance coverage.
The report, for the year 2003, said the number of people below the U.S. poverty line increased by 1.3 million with more than 60 percent of the increase among children under 18 years of age.
In terms of percentage, the number of poor increased by 0.4 percent to 12.5 percent of the U.S. population.
The Census Bureau also reported a 1.4 million rise in the number of people lacking health insurance and said household income was stagnant, except for Hispanic households which saw their income drop by 2.6 percent.
This was the third consecutive year that the annual Census Bureau report showed an increase in the number of people below the poverty line and without health insurance.
"The increased number of those living in poverty and the continuing rise in the population living without health care coverage are not partisan issues," Father Place said in an Aug. 26 statement.
"As a nation, we must examine our priorities that allow this situation to exist and continually worsen," he said.
Father Place noted that the census figures showed that many of the uninsured are gainfully employed but their employers cannot or do not offer affordable health benefits for workers and their dependents.
This is the third year in a row that Census Bureau figures report "that the increase in uninsured is primarily due to a decline in employment-based coverage," said Father Place.
The Census Bureau reported that 45 million people are uninsured, representing 15.6 percent of the population. In 2002, the uninsured represented 15.2 percent of the population. Hispanics have the highest rate of uninsured, 32.7 percent, unchanged from 2002.
Father Place said Census Bureau figures show that 6.3 million people have been added to the uninsured category in the past four years.
Barbara Stephenson, communications director of the U.S. bishops' Catholic Campaign for Human Development, noted that if all the people below the poverty line where placed in one state it would probably be the most populous state in the country.
"This is disheartening, disturbing and disappointing," she told Catholic News Service Aug. 27. "The country is not doing a good job in attacking the root causes of poverty."
The Census Bureau said 35.9 million people were below the poverty line in 2003. California, with the largest state population, had 35.1 million people in 2002.
Stephenson noted that poverty is often concentrated in urban areas which many Americans never visit to see how poor people live.
"We are warehousing the poor," said Stephenson, noting that many CCHD programs are aimed at getting people involved with the poor "to see them as persons, not statistics."
The Rev. David Beckmann, a Lutheran minister and president of Bread for the World, called the Census Bureau figures "troubling" and asked presidential candidates to focus more on "ending the vicious cycle of poverty and hunger."
He criticized "the lack of serious debate during the election cycle about how to help the people struggling to lift themselves out of poverty."
Bread for the Word, an organization supported by 45 religious denominations, engages in educational and advocacy projects related to alleviating U.S. hunger and poverty.
The poverty line is determined by the income an individual or family must have to provide basic needs. The Census Bureau calculates this by monitoring the cost-of-living index. For 2003, it calculated the poverty line at $9,393 for someone living alone and at $18,810 for a family of four.
Key statistics in the census report include:
-- The 35.9 million people below the poverty line in 2003 represented 12.5 percent of the population. In 2002, people below the poverty level accounted for 12.1 percent of the population. The poverty level stood at 11.3 percent in 2000.
-- Children under 18 living in poverty increased by 800,000 in 2003, representing 61 percent of the rise in poverty in the total population since 2002.
-- The percentage of children living in poverty went from 16.7 percent in 2002 to 17.6 percent in 2003, and the number of them rose from 12.1 million to 12.9 million.
-- The number of poor families grew to 10 percent, representing 7.6 million people. The corresponding figures for 2002 were 9.6 percent of families, representing 7.2 million people.
-- Household income for Hispanics dropped 2.6 percent to $33,000 while household income for other racial and ethnic groups remained unchanged. The national average was $43,000.
-- Earnings for full-time female workers dropped to 76 percent of those of full-time male workers. The percentage was 77 percent in 2002.
-- The poverty rates for minority groups, except for Asians, remained unchanged, but they were all much higher than that of non-Hispanic whites, which remained unchanged at 8.2 percent.
-- The poverty rate for Asians rose from 10.1 percent to 11.8 percent. The poverty rate for African-Americans remained at 24.4 percent. The rate for Hispanics remained at 22.5 percent.
END
Copyright (c) 2004 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service.
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