More Medina County residents going without health insurance

The number of Medina County residents lacking health insurance was rising sharply even before COVID-19 job losses began to mount, according to new U.S. census data. Medina County is shown to have a 4.3 percent uninsured rate for 2019, up from 2.7 percent or roughly 5,000 people in 2018. That total was 9.3 percent for 2010 and has ebbed and flowed with a downward trend since then. Numbers held steady at 9.4 percent in 2011 before falling to 7.4 in 2012. Ensuing years have seen a pattern of a slight rise followed by a significant decrease, starting with a 7.6 percent rate in 2013 that fell to 5.3 percent the next year then jumped to 5.9 before falling again to 3.6 percent for 2016. The next year brought a rise to 4.2. Newest census information covers 82 of Ohio's 88 counties. Medina County is fairing well compared with 2019 rates seen at the state (6.6 percent) and national level (9.2). Lorain County's percentage has risen in each of the past two years to 5.8 percent and 6.1 percent. Dr. Kim Bowen, who retired in 2017 after serving as Cleveland Clinic Medina Hospital's emergency room director for 20 years, established the Free Clinic of Medina County, 970 E. Washington St., Medina, in 2004. That venture came after starting Parma Health Ministry about a decade earlier, which stemmed from interactions with a friend who was unable to see a doctor due to having no insurance despite working two jobs. Bowen said traffic at the clinic has been up and down since the start of the pandemic. Talks with colleagues have pointed to a general decrease in in-person medical visits right at the start of the pandemic followed by a gradual rise. "I think people were simply scared to go out to the hospital at first or to the ER," he said. "We saw an increase here over the summer that's continued into the fall. We never have a problem with available doctors, nurses and volunteers, though. That's a statement on the overwhelming support this community shows, especially though this year." After Bowen began work in Medina, he collaborated with Dr. John Surso, a local family physician, to start Medina Health Ministry, which has since changed its name to become the organization operating today. Policy changes are being considered by the Free Clinic of Medina County, Bowen said. They include coverage expansion to those who work in Medina County but live elsewhere and removing employment requirements for treatment. "I live in Spencer and had a couple of gentlemen drop off mattresses at my home the other day," he said. "The conversation eventually revealed they didn't have insurance. These are people out there working hard just trying to make it through all of this. I want us to be there to help people like them. We also need to be there for people whether they have a job or not. There's a lot of reasons people don't have jobs right now." Census reporting last year among Ohio's 39 most populated counties placed Medina's 2.7 percent uninsured rate as the lowest in the state, which was an outlier from state and U.S. trends. After the Affordable Care Act was signed into law in 2010, Ohio's rate gradually fell from 12.3 percent to a low of 5.6 by 2016. Since that time, the rate has begun to inch back up, first to 6 percent in 2017 and to 6.6 percent by last year. That pattern essentially mirrors national statistics with the Census recording a 15.5 percent uninsured percentage in 2010, which then fell until reaching a 2016 low point of 8.6 percent before a gradual rise to 9.2 percent over the next three years. Two Georgetown University studies have begun to quantify effects that COVID-19 and resulting job losses have had on the uninsured rate. Key findings from a June study from the campus's Center for Children and Families included a 6.1 percent increase in national Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program enrollment by the end of 2020, which includes an estimated 4.3 million non-elderly adults and children opting in. While a substantial increase, that scenario is much lower than earlier estimates of 8 million to 12 million. A 10 percent increase to the national uninsured rate is predicted by the end of 2020. The Center for Children and Families also found that 4.8 percent of Ohio children, about 131,000, went without health insurance in 2019. Georgetown University says that number has increased by 26 percent over the past four years and is part of a national trend currently leaving more than 726,000 kids without coverage. "For decades, children's health coverage had been a national success story that we could point to with pride, but the data shows the trend is now going in the wrong direction," Georgetown University Center for Children and Families Executive Director Joan Alker said in a statement. "What's worse, the number of children losing coverage accelerated from 2018 to 2019 during a time when unemployment was very low. The situation is likely worse today." Contact reporter Jonathan Delozier at (330) 721-4050 or jdelozier@medina-gazette.com.