Census numbers show RIte Care is working

The latest numbers from the United States Census Bureau show the percent of people living in poverty and without health insurance coverage rising for both Rhode Island and Massachusetts in 2003, although both states continue to perform well above the national average.




Rhode Island’s percentage of people living in poverty rose 1 percent, to 11.3 percent in 2003, while Massachusetts saw its percentage rise 0.6 percent, to 10.1 percent in 2003. Across the nation, 12.3 percent of the population was living in poverty, a 0.4 percent rise from the 2002 numbers. Last year, a family of two adults and two children, with an income less than $18,660, was considered poor.



The Ocean State trailed only Minnesota for posting the lowest percentage of uninsured, even as its numbers rose 1.3 percent, to 10.1 percent of its population, and was bested by only Vermont for the lowest percentage of uninsured children. According to Rhode Island KIDS COUNT, the three-year average for the state’s uninsured children stood at 4.8 percent, while Vermont’s was 4.3 percent. Massachusetts ranked fifth best in the nation for percentage of uninsured (up 1.2 percent, to 10.3 percent of the state’s population) and tied for seventh best (6.4 percent) among uninsured children.



Those numbers were considerably better than the country as a whole, which had 15.4 percent of its population living without health insurance (up 0.5 percent) and a three-year average of 11.6 percent of children under the age of 18 without coverage. In releasing the figures, the Census Bureau reported that the increases in the uninsured were at least partly due to fewer companies providing benefits to their workers than in the past. And Rhode Island was among just a dozen states where the median income dropped, falling 3.1 percent to $45,205.



The Census numbers were greeted as good news by Rhode Island KIDS COUNT, the group working on health access initiatives to reduce the number of uninsured children and families in the state. At a press conference on Aug. 26, Elizabeth Burke Bryant, executive director of KIDS COUNT, and a number of other speakers gathered at Hasbro Children’s Hospital.



“We have to hold the numbers where they are,” Burke Bryant said. “RIte Care is the result of a lot of work, by a lot of people over the years. … It’s really the best investment the state can make.”



U.S. Congressman Patrick Kennedy and state Sen. Elizabeth Roberts, a Cranston Democrat, were among the legislators who pointed to the state’s RIte Care program as being a huge piece of keeping the state’s uninsured numbers so low. Kennedy called the federal government to provide more funding to states and Roberts praised local legislators for refusing to make cuts to the program, even in the face of budgetary constraints.


“I’m very excited about the numbers today and we still have some work to do,”
said Jan Hayward, director of the state Department of Human Services. “While
I’m thrilled about the numbers, what’s important is that RIte Care is just a
tool. What we’re interested in is the outcome. Kids are coming to school, they’re
coming healthy and they’re coming ready to learn.”



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