Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 15, 1993                   TAG: 9312150061
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

2.2 MILLION MORE LACKED HEALTH INSURANCE IN '92

The increase was caused largely by a decline in coverage for people who work for small companies, said the study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, based on Census Bureau numbers tabulated in March.

The latest figures show that there were 38.5 million non-elderly Americans without private or public health insurance during 1992 - up from the 36.3 million who were uninsured in 1991. Over three years, that number has climbed by more than 4 million.

The figure from 1991 is the one that's been widely used by President Clinton and other advocates of health care reform in citing the need for wholesale change.

The latest surge "just goes to show why we need universal coverage," said Jeff Eller, the White House spokesman on health care.

"We all pay for those who don't currently have insurance," Eller said. "They get health care when it's too late and it's the most expensive."

The Employee Benefit Research Institute is a private, non-partisan research group in Washington. Ken Thorpe, a deputy assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, said the institute's numbers are consistent with government estimates.

Population growth caused only part of the increase in the uninsured, the institute said, with much of the increase caused by a decline in employer-based care.

For instance, of the 2.2 million Americans who were added to the uninsured rolls from 1991 to 1992, 42 percent were in families headed by someone who worked for an company with fewer than 25 employees. An additional 15 percent were in families in which the income earner worked for a company with 25 to 99 workers.

"It's the most volatile part of the market," Thorpe said of the way small companies get insurance. Even if small companies can negotiate a competitive rate the way big companies do, small firms can be canceled or hit with huge premium increases if one of their employees gets a serious illness, Thorpe said.

Those getting at least partial coverage from the government has steadily increased from 1989 - up from 26.2 million non-elderly Americans getting assistance then to 33.4 million in 1992.

The number of children uninsured in 1992 was 9.8 million, or 14.8 percent of all children, compared with 9.5 million, or 14.7 percent, in 1991, the institute said.