According to a recent report from healthcare consumer advocacy group Families USA, almost 70,000 Nevadans will lose their health insurance by December 2010. That number boils down to 450 Nevada residents losing healthcare coverage per week.

The report, titled “The Clock Is Ticking: More Americans Losing Health Coverage,” attributes the main impetus behind the loss of health coverage to the increasing cost of healthcare premiums in the United States. Families USA Executive Director Ron Pollack said in a statement that insurance companies are handing down high costs to employers, who are forced to pass on the increases to their workers.

“Employers that do continue to offer health coverage are being forced to pass on the rising costs to their employees by imposing higher premiums or copayments or by offering plans that cover fewer benefits,” Pollack said. “Other employers are choosing not to offer coverage at all because it is simply too expensive. Between 2000 and 2008, the share of firms offering health coverage declined by 6 percentage points, with small businesses being the most likely to drop coverage.”

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 18 percent of Nevadans are uninsured, largely due to the prevalence of small businesses in the state. While many Nevadans may be forced to end their health care coverage due to rising costs, others lose insurance due to layoffs.

Employees who have been cut due to cost concerns may be able to retain health care coverage via COBRA, a federal act that allows employees who were involuntarily terminated for reasons other than gross misconduct to continue health care coverage through their employer, though the employee must pay the plan’s premiums.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act helps those who have been the victim of layoffs to continue their insurance coverage. The ARRA specifies that workers who were terminated from a company with more than 20 employees for reasons other than gross misconduct are eligible for federal assistance in paying for their health care premiums. The government will subsidize up to 65 percent of the unemployed citizen’s COBRA coverage. This subsidy is available to those who were laid off after September 1, 2008, and will cover those who are terminated before December 31, 2009.

Nevada has not only been devastated by unemployment, which hit a record high of 12 percent in June, but the state has also seen a large number of bankruptcies. According to a report to be released in the August issue of the American Journal of Medicine, bankruptcies caused by the staggering cost of medical bills rose from 46 percent in 2001 to 62 percent in 2007.

The authors of the study found that 75 percent of those who filed for bankruptcy because of medical reasons had health insurance. The study was also conducted prior to the start of the recession, which means that the number of medical bill-related bankruptcies could have risen since 2007.

The confusing state of health care in America right now has prompted yet another political storm of controversy surrounding the issue of health care reform. Nevada Senator Harry Reid has currently halted the discussion of health care reform in the Senate until after senators return from recess this fall, but citizens across the country are continuing to discuss the issue of reform.

President Barack Obama has outlined a proposal for reform that would tax families who make more than $350,000 per year in order to fund a public health insurance plan. Employers would be required to provide a group insurance plan for their employees, and no citizen could be denied coverage based on pre-existing conditions. Some argue that the estimated $1.5 trillion cost of the plan is prohibitive, especially considering the United States is currently operating with a budget deficit.

Americans across the country are in favor of health care reform, but the issues of cost and government involvement are deal-breakers for many citizens and politicians.

Nevada Rep. Dean Heller, a Republican from Carson City, told the Reno Gazette-Journal that he opposes Obama’s plan because his top priority in Washington “is to make sure the economy turns around and it starts creating jobs. I won’t vote for anything that would do the opposite of that, and this health care reform would do the opposite of that.”

Senator Reid and Rep. Shelley Berkeley support the plan, while Nevada Senator John Ensign opposes it.

It is clear that something must be done.

By Caitlin McGarry