But surely people providing healthcare have health insurance

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As the nation’s leaders discuss who should get health insurance and in what fashion and how much it should cost, many people who provide healthcare are watching from the sidelines.

First, the Kaiser Family Foundation offered up an analysis this week of the nation’s much-discussed 46 million uninsured people.

That report notes: ‘More than eight in ten of the uninsured are in working families -- about two thirds are from families with one or more full-time workers and 14% are from families with part-time workers. Only 19% of the uninsured are from families that have no connection to the workforce. Even at lower
income levels, the majority of the uninsured are in working families. Among the uninsured with
incomes below the poverty level ($22,025 for a family of four in 2008), 55% have at least one worker in
the family.

Then came a closer look at healthcare workers specifically, many of whom would fall into this category. (And by healthcare workers, think beyond doctors and nurses to include the people doing the most basic tasks.)

Using National Health Interview Survey data, researchers at the University of Minnesota found that 11% of healthcare workers are uninsured. Residential care workers are especially likely to lack coverage.

Here’s the abstract of that study, published online Thursday in the American Journal of Public Health.

-- Tami Dennis