A report released Wednesday by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Barely Hanging On: Middle-Class and Uninsured, looks at the rise in the level of uninsured middle-class people in the last eight years.
USA Today reports on the most significant national statistics affecting middle-class families earning between $45,000 to $85,000 annually. "Between 2000 and 2008, more than 2 million middle-class people became uninsured. Their ranks rose to 12.9 million of the estimated 46.3 million Americans without health insurance." They also note the rise in what the average worker paid for a family policy, 81 percent, in eight years, versus a decrease in average household income (Winter, 3/17).
Dallas Morning News: Between 2000 and 2008, uninsured middle-income Texans "grew 40 percent, from 1.22 million to 1.71 million," according to the same report.