Poverty -- Health-care coverage

Fourteen percent of New Yorkers lacked any form of health-care coverage in 2006. Nationally, minorities under age 65 disproportionately lack health insurance. More than three-quarters of uninsured working-age adults are employed full or part-time, and most uninsured children have at least one employed parent. Lack of health insurance is a key factor for poor health among people living in poverty, who have higher rates of chronic conditions such as hypertension, high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol levels, and life expectancies that are 25 percent lower than people with higher incomes. Catholic Charities calls on New York State to continue expanding access to health insurance coverage for low- and moderate-income families and individuals.

This blog is participating in Blog Action Day, an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. The aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion: this year the issue is poverty. Between now and October 15, we will be posting about poverty in our diocese, with material provided by Catholic Charities in its report Poverty in the Diocese of Albany: A Threat to the Common Good. The report, and additional information, is available here.