photo by interplast @ flickr

I recently read an article in the Strib about increases in applications for MinnesotaCare, the state’s insurance plan for low-income individuals. Applications are up 25% so far this year, and in July they were up 43% compared to July 2008.

So I began to dig around a little bit, looking for more information about what people are doing to meet their healthcare needs during the economic recession. According to “Rising Health Pressures in an Economic Recession,” a recent report by the Kaiser Family Foundation:

The uninsured and underinsured delay and forgo important healthcare due to cost. Many in jobless families delay or skip needed care or medicine for cost reasons, with adverse consequences for their health.

In Kaiser’s July survey, nearly half (49%) of adults reported they have put off some sort of needed healthcare over the past 12 months because of its cost. One in five have had problems paying medical bills in the past year. And about 1 in 3 are “very worried” about being able to afford healthcare services they need.

What are they doing to cut back on costs? One-third are trying home remedies or over-the-counter drugs instead of seeing a doctor. Depending on the illness, this may not be a bad thing—a steam bath of eucalyptus and tea tree oil can do wonders for the sinuses. On the other hand, if it’s a bleeding ulcer, eating TUMS like candy might land you in the hospital.

Perhaps more worrisome: More than one-quarter are skipping dental care or check-ups—this can have major negative long-term consequences if they are skipped for too long (and result in costly long-term treatment that could have been averted). About 1 in 5 have skipped a recommended medical test or treatment, and 1 in 5 have not filled a prescription. Fifteen percent have cut pills in half or skipped doses of medicine to stretch out a prescription.

Not good. And it’s only going to get worse. According to a story in the Washington Post, annual healthcare costs for employers are expected to increase 166% over the next decade, to $28,530 per employee. Let me repeat that astounding figure: 166%. That means that employee expenses will also likely increase 166%. Or more.

Clearly some sort of healthcare reform is needed. I don’t have the answers, but if you’re looking for a rather simple visual presentation of this really complex issue that’s relatively unbiased, check out this Back of the Napkin presentation.

When my brain hits capacity reading Proust and the Squid, I put it down and pick up something lighter. Most recently that lighter thing has been OBD: Obsessive Branding Disorder, by Lucas Conley.

A few tidbits you might find of interest:

• On average, people fulfill 80-85% of their needs with just 150 everyday items.
• The average American encounters between 3,000 and 5,000 ad messages each day.
• In 2006 U.S. advertisers spent nearly $300 billion—about $10,000 a second.

$10,000 a second. It makes one pause.

More:

• Fifty million American households signed up for the Do-Not Call Registry when it was launched in 2003 (10 million in the first three days). Today the list includes 145 million phone numbers.
• As much as 90% of all email is estimated to be spam. 

Today I am grateful for spam filters.

Some economists are heralding the end of the recession, but I’m not taking out my party hat yet. 

Nationally, the unemployment rate stands at 9.4%, but if you add in discouraged workers and involuntary part-time workers, it’s 16.3%—a slight improvement from the 16.5% we saw in June, but still abysmal. And economists are still predicting high unemployment—averaging about 9.8%—throughout 2010.

While the Minnesota unemployment rate dropped to 8.1% in July, we’ve got our own bad news to deal with. The recent job vacancy survey conducted by DEED found that there are now 7.7 unemployed workers for each job vacancy in the state. (This is up from 5.6 unemployed workers per job vacancy six months ago, and if you go back far enough—see left side of graphic below—you can see that in the early part of this decade there were actually more jobs than there were job seekers!)

But the story gets worse (I think I will have to put something fun and silly at the end of this post, to balance out all this bleakness): Six months ago, the median wage (half pay more, half pay less) for open jobs was $11/hour. That has fallen to $10/hour. Yikes! That means that half the people that get jobs in Minnesota will make less than $21,000 a year if they work full time. But the chances are good that they won’t, because 41% of the jobs available are part time.

On a Lighter Note

Did you know there is a part of the brain called Area 37? I had no idea. I learned this in Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain. (Read my other entry about Proust and the Squid.)

It’s for object recognition.

Area 37. Doesn’t that sound like something you’d find in The X Files or House of Leaves?

Kind of creepy.