Report shows 20 percent of Nevadans lack health insurance

The rate, slightly higher than the national average, stems from costs and a lack of plans offered by employers, the panel was told Friday.

The data from the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas was reported at a Legislative Committee on Health Care meeting.

"The good side of this is that most of our population is covered," said Sen. Ray Rawson, R-Las Vegas, the chairman of the panel. "The bad side is some are not."

The report, the result of telephone and mailed-out surveys, estimates that 81.7 percent of adults and 81.3 percent of children in Nevada are continuously covered with health insurance.

Another 9.6 percent of adults and 10.4 percent of children have had short-term lapses in health care coverage of three to nine months.

The remaining 8.7 percent of adults and 8.3 percent of children have had no health care coverage for a year or longer.

The survey found that households with children are slightly more likely to be insured when compared to all Nevada households, while young adults are the most likely to incur lapses in coverage.

The survey found that adults who had long-term lapses in their health insurance coverage had significantly more visits to hospital emergency rooms than adults who were continuously insured, a finding that Rawson said he found disturbing.

He also pointed to confusion by some people who rely on emergency room visits, the most expensive form of medical care and one that is frequently picked up by taxpayers.

The report doesn't indicate how many children in Nevada may be eligible for a new health insurance program for low income parents, called Nevada Check Up.

The program is scheduled to begin Oct. 1 with a few thousand children signed up.

Estimates of the number of eligible children have ranged from 10,000 to 45,000. Keith Schwer, director of the research center that did the survey, said a more accurate number will be obtained in the next several months.

Lawmakers hope to use the data about uninsured Nevadans as they debate health care issues next year.

The survey found that retired people who do no work are covered with health insurance more than any other group, at 92.9 percent. Next was retired people with part-time jobs at 91.8 percent.

Eighty-five percent of full-time employees had continuous health care coverage, while 72 percent of part-time workers and 44 percent of the unemployed had continuous coverage.

When examined by type of occupation, 92 percent of public employees and those active in the armed forces were continuously covered. For casino employees, 81 percent were continuously covered. About 65 percent of construction workers were covered, and 60 percent of the food and beverage workers in the hotel-casino industry.

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