Poverty Rate Worsens in 2010

Those without health uninsurance increased also

Census released their official poverty rate numbers today, and as predicted by organizations such as the Center on Budget Policies and Priorities yesterday, the poverty rate has climbed, as has the number of people without health insurance.

The poverty rate climbed almost 10 percentage points -- from 14.3% in 2009 to 15.1% in 2010 -- and the number of people living in poverty jumped by almost 3 million, from 43.6 million in 2009 to 46.2 million in 2010. The number of people without insurance rose from 49 million in 2009 to close to 50 million in 2010. Neither the percentage of people uninsured nor the percentage of those covered by Medicaid changed, though both may be affected by coming changes in deficit reduction talks and the healthcare reform bill. For the latter, most of the major reforms will not kick in until 2014. Many of the GOP presidential candidates said in a debate last night that they would repeal the entire Affordable Healthcare Act.

The median household income declined for all races, but much more pronounced for people of color: For black households it dropped 3.2%, for Asians, 3.4% and for Hispanic households, 2.3%. White median household income declined by 1.7%

With poverty, again, people of color caught the brunt of it, particularly African Americans who had the largest increase in people living in poverty with a 1.6% increase. Whites living in poverty climbed .7%