Now that the PUSH website is officially launched I've looked into the updated Census county level data to see how the estimates correlate with other county level data to see what information they could provide about the state's uninsured. I downloaded data from the Robert Wood Johnson foundation and the census bureau on the state's 67 counties and computed correlation coefficients to determine if there is an association. For those who are unfamilliar with correlation it is a number that tells you if there is an association between two variables. The demographic variables I correlated the % uninsured with were % illiterate, diabetes, rural, female, no English, Hispanic, Native American, and African American. Of these % illiterate, rural, female, Asian, and Native American had statistically significant correlations (which means that we can be confident that as one county level of these variables changes, the % uninsured in that county is likely to change). Of all of these associations, the one with % illiterate was the strongest accounting for 68.2% of the variability in the data. The data for this relationship are presented in the graph below.
The second strongest association was between the % rural and % uninsured accounting for 26.4% of the variability. The graph below shows why this relationship is not as strong as the one between illiteracy and the uninsured with a lot more scatter than the one above. Philadelphia County with a high rate has a 0% rural population while four counties, Forest, Fulton, Potter and Sullivan, have 100% rural populations and high uninsured rates.
Thank you, Paul, for this fine analysis of the relationship between variables and insurance coverage in Pennsylvania. The variables I am most interested in here are those that evidence the corporate insurance war on those of us in the 99% who are most vulnerable. The highest correlates--that of illiteracy and that of rural location both have to do with the lack of economic resources in the educational systems afforded to the populations found in pockets of illiteracy in Philadelphia and in the rural areas of Pennsylvania. The rich go to the "better" charter school or private school, where learning disabilities are diagnosed, worked with and properly treated. The middle class, working class and poor simply can not afford learning specialists, school psychologists, special reading instructors, paid tutors,or medicines as required in some cases. These kids simply get passed on from one grade to the next highest until they are too old for school. And not being able to read, how can they find a decent paying job? Or even begin to think about a job that pays their insurance? In terms of our rural population having a high uninsured %, again, more and more corporations and banks have bought or foreclosed the struggling family farms of this economy and forced making a living for a family almost impossible in a state which used to boost of its output. Ironic enough,Pennsylvania Farmers feel forced to save their farms by selling the drilling rights to oil and gas drillers, then risk contamination of their water and the air they breathe, perhaps making the need for health care even greater. When we pass Single Payer, publicly paid, privately provided health care, the state will save $2.3 Billion in the first year, and hopefully, some of this money will go to Education and to Aid to Farmers.
ReplyDeleteThank you MaryPat. The next step would be to look at voting patterns and the uninsured.
ReplyDeleteThanks Paul for another thoughtful analysis,
ReplyDeleteThe tragedy of all of this is that the answer is simple. Eliminate the insurance industry. The money that would be available would be able to go towards all of the things that we struggle to pay for today. I don't want UPMC or Highmark to donate OUR PREMIUM dollars to the opera--that money should be going to provide health care, period.