Oct. 16--Read the Families USA report "One-Two Punch: Unemployed and Uninsured"

About 95,500 more Virginians have lost both their jobs and their health insurance this year, according to Families USA, a nonprofit organization pushing for universal health coverage.

"That's why health-care reform is so important," Ron Pollack, executive director of the Washington-based group, said during a telephone briefing with reporters yesterday.

"It will protect American families when they lose or switch jobs," he said.

Virginia's unemployment rate averaged 4 percent in 2008 and 6.7 percent this year, the report said. It examined the effect of rising unemployment on health-insurance coverage in all 50 states.

The group's estimate of 95,500 newly uninsured in Virginia is based on a formula that correlates every percentage-point rise in unemployment with a 0.59-percentage-point rise in the rate of the uninsured.

Families USA said about 824,900 adults were uninsured in Virginia in 2008, a rate of 17.1 percent. For 2009, that rate of uninsured adults is projected to be 18.7 percent, representing about 920,400 people. The difference is the 95,500.

"Thousands of Virginians have lost jobs during the recession. It has left many uninsured," Jill Hanken, an attorney with the Virginia Poverty Law Center, said, citing big job losses in the Richmond area from the closing of companies including Circuit City, LandAmerica and Qimonda.

She said unemployment benefits in the state range from $54 a week for the lowest-wage workers to $378 a week -- not enough in most cases to cover health-insurance premiums. "Even the highest amount is below the national average," Hanken said.

The state's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stood at 6.5 percent in August, the fifth-lowest in the nation, compared with the national rate of 9.7 percent. Also, the number of Virginians receiving unemployment benefits was 92,000 in August 2009, compared with 44,000 in August 2008.

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Contact Tammie Smith at (804) 649-6572 or TLsmith@timesdispatch.com.

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