Ga. has 3rd highest poverty rate in nation

http://www.macon.com/2011/09/14/v-print/1702672/ga-has-3rd-highest-poverty-rate.html?utm_source=DAILY+NEWS+BRIEFINGS&utm_campaign=d0d69052db-September+14%2C+2011&utm_medium=email

Posted on Wed, Sep. 14, 2011

Ga. has 3rd highest poverty rate in nation

By ERRIN HAINES and KATE BRUMBACK

ATLANTA -- New census data shows that Georgia’s poverty rate was the third highest in the country in 2010, up two spots from last year, with more than 1.8 million residents counted among the poor.

The only states with higher poverty rates in 2010 were Louisiana and Mississippi. Nationally, 15.1 percent of Americans were living in poverty last year.

Georgia also ranked eighth in the nation in the number of uninsured residents, at a rate of 19.4 percent. Roughly 1.9 million Georgians did not have health insurance last year when the state joined a challenge to President Barack Obama’s health care plan, meant in part to address rising numbers of people without health insurance.

Only Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, South Carolina and Texas had higher rates of uninsured residents.

Nationally, the ranks of the poor have swelled to a record 46.2 million, amounting to nearly 1 in 6 Americans, and the number without health insurance has reached 49.9 million, the most in over two decades.

University of Georgia demographer Doug Bachtel said there is a clear correlation between the rise of Georgians living in poverty and the number of uninsured residents.

“If you’re living below the poverty level, you probably ... don’t have a good job,” Bachtel explained. “You’re not going to have any excess money to buy your own insurance. They’re not into preventive care.”

[...]

..