By Dan Juneau -The LABI Report

Last year, approximately 2.4 million joined the ranks of individuals who are not covered by a health insurance policy. A double-digit rise in the cost of health insurance premiums, job losses, and financially stressed businesses were some of the factors propelling this rise in the uninsured.

According to the Census Bureau, some form of health insurance currently does not cover some 43.6 million Americans. The percentage of the population that is uninsured rose from 14.6 percent in 2002 to 15.2 percent in 2003. Increases in the uninsured rate covered most demographic categories-whites, blacks, people in the age group 18-64, and both middle-income and high-wage earners. The almost universal nature of the growing number of uninsured Americans reflects the broad scope of the recession that spread across the nation last year.

The good news is that the long-awaited national economic recovery seems to be arriving at last. The stock market rebounded this year, restoring some of the individual net worth that had severely eroded in the last few years. Personal income rose significantly in both July and August. Perhaps the most important indication that things are turning around on the job front has to do with the increase of direct employment. Almost 60,000 jobs were added in September (the first increase in seven months), and the unemployment rate held steady.

Certainly an improving economy is the best remedy for the growing number of Americans without health insurance, since most get their health care coverage from private employment or a government program. An improving labor market will result in more individuals being covered through their employer, and higher employment and a stronger economy mean governments have more revenue to provide health care coverage to the poor. As the economy improves, the ranks of uninsured should begin to drop. But higher employment and renewed economic vitality alone will not solve the problem of many individuals going without health insurance.

Skyrocketing health care costs are reflected in the soaring cost of health insurance premiums. In the last year alone, health insurance premiums increased by approximately 14 percent. According to one leading health care research group, an average family health insurance policy now costs slightly more than $9,000. The high out-of-pocket cost to families is causing more of them to choose to go without medical insurance in order to prevent a drop in their standard of living. While that may not be a wise choice on their part, it is a choice that many of them are making.

One of the solutions to the health insurance crisis is for government to stop making the problem worse. Providing new health care entitlements without putting up the money to pay for them is the customary ploy of governments. Providers are then squeezed to keep the cost to government low, and the cost pressure is shifted to the private sector. There are limits to what business can absorb in health care costs, and when those limits are exceeded, employees either lose coverage or see a reduction in benefits.

Another governmentally imposed cost factor are health care mandates. Federal and state governments love to tell employers what they must cover if they offer insurance. These mandated offerings add to the costs of providing insurance.

To make a dent in the rising number of Americans without health insurance, a strong economy needs to put more individuals back to work-and government needs to stop engaging in practices that drive up the cost of health insurance in the private sector.