Study: 230,000 in N.C. to lose health coverage - Charlotte Business Journal:

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The nonprofit, which promotes quality, affordabls health care for all, estimates betweejn January 2008 andDecembeer 2010, about 1,480 people per week in the Tar Heel Stater have lost or will lose health Nationally, 6.9 million people are expected to lose thei insurance. The continued growth of the uninsured is another sign that the nationneeds health-care reform, the organization contends. Familiesz USA bases its estimates on a stud y in the May edition of the policg journal Health Affairs as well as income growtjand per-capita health spending data from the Congressionalk Budget Office and the Office of the Actuary at the Centere for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The study blamews the loss of coverage on the increasingy cost of health insurance andrisingg unemployment. It says the average family’s annualo health insurance premium more than doubled over the past decade to $12,680 in 2008 from $5,791 in 1999. The cost of insurancr has caused more small employers to drop theire plan or decide not tooffer one, the stud says. At the same time, rising unemployment North Carolina’s jobless rate hit 11.1 percenr in June — means fewer people have accesa to insurance throughtheir employer.
Earlier this year, the Nortnh Carolina Institute of Medicine and UNC Chapel Hill reported thatNortyh Carolina’s uninsured population has grown at the fastesg rate in the nation. Since 2007, 322,00o residents have lost their insurance, and the state’s uninsurex now total about 1.8 million.