Hadley (date) investigates the changes in the American labor force and insurance coverage of citizens, between the periods of 1999 and 2002. The data presented demonstrates a strong relationship between the status of the labor force and insurance coverage. The author notes that unemployment rose from 4.0 percent in 2000 to 6.0 percent in February of 2004. corresponding to this increase in unemployment, the number of those without health insurance also grew, from 14.2 percent in 2000, to 15.2 percent in 2002, which equated to approximately four million additional people that were uninsured.
             Several changes have fueled this increase in numbers of uninsured. Outsourcing has become more commonplace. This coupled with the reduced number of full-time workers has equated to a lower level of access to group insurance. To further exacerbate matters, the cost of private insurance has increased. According to Hadley, "In the past three years, insurance premiums have increased between 10.9 and 13.9 percent a year, while workers' wages have grown between 2 and 3 percent per year." Now, add to this the fact that employers are covering less of a share of policy premiums, and one begins to understand the forces that have led to the increased numbers of uninsured.
             Approximately 90 percent of these additional uninsured came primarily from low and lower-middle-income families. As support for the correlation of a positive relationship between employment status and uninsured status, these same families also had the largest increases in unemployment. Accompanying this drop in employment was also a decrease in full-time employment, due to an increase in part-time employment in this demographic (Hadley). The author is able to take real statistics to help bring this societal problem to life.
             One positive event, over the four years investigated was the increase in public insurance through the auspices of Medicaid and SCHI...