1 in 5 in Sonoma County lack health insurance

For those worried about how many Sonoma County residents don't have health insurance, the government today released something new to chew on.

The U.S. Census Bureau said that as of 2005, 80,311 Sonoma County residents under the age of 65 are uninsured -- about one in five people and roughly 20,000 more than the figure local policymakers now use.

Behind those numbers are people such as Glenn Griess, of Sebastopol, owner of Skyview Nursery, and Jill Adams of Santa Rosa, owner of Crescent Moon Farm, a grower of heirloom vegetables.

Griess, 55, lost his insurance when his former employer, Boericke and Tafel, a Santa Rosa manufacturer of homeopathic products, moved its production operations to Mexico.

A private plan is "too expensive," he said, despite the possibility of needing future medical care.

"I've had things happen to me, injuries, and I'm not exactly getting younger," he said.

As for Adams, 32, she quit her job in the Oliver's Market produce section three years ago to be a farmer. She's tried without luck since then to get health insurance she and her partner can afford.

Whether they are among 80,000 or 60,000 of the county's uninsured is information of little practical value to Adams or Griess. But for people charged with managing public health, such numbers count.

"At the end of the day, I know that policymakers want one number to focus on, that makes a big difference, especially when you begin to cost out specific proposals," said Michael Davern, a researcher who reviewed Census Bureau data for a 2000 health insurance survey.

Sonoma County's top health official said the Census figures are overstated, and, in California, at least, other estimates are more accurate.

Dr. Mary Maddux-Gonzalez, the county's public health director, said a UCLA estimate that there are 60,000 uninsured Sonoma County residents, or 10.2 percent of the population, is the figure to go by.

That number comes from the California Health Interview Survey, or CHIS, based on a telephone survey by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

The Census Bureau, by contrast, arrives at its data by extrapolating from Census data and includes no direct contact with people. The latest data from both CHIS and the bureau are for 2005.

"The CHIS data is based on a survey, and we are relying on that data for our local estimates for the number of uninsured," Maddux-Gonzalez said.

CHIS data is reliable, said Davern, research director for the State Health Access Data Assistance Center at the University of Minnesota. "If you have reliable direct estimates available, typically I would use them," he said.

Still, he said, the Census Bureau estimate comes from survey methods that may overstate the numbers while state surveys tend to undercount.

For example, he said, the CHIS study didn't reach households without telephones, where people without health insurance likely would be found.

"Use the CHIS, he said, "but don't be surprised if the real estimate is 10 percent higher."

Regardless, said Maddux-Gonzalez, "I think that the fact that we have at least 10 percent of our population without health insurance is a significant problem, it makes a real difference in the financial security of families, in the access to health care."

Public health officials use the estimates to set funding priorities and target outreach programs, among other efforts.

Noting that both the CHIS and Census Bureau data are three years old, Maddux-Gonzalez said the number of uninsured is expected to be higher today, especially in light of the economic turmoil.

According to the census data, Sonoma County has the second-highest percentage of uninsured people under age 65 in the nine Bay Area counties, at 20.1 percent. Only Napa County has a higher rate, at 21.1 percent.

For Fulton resident Hector Alvarez, health insurance creates a monthly dilemma. He said he pays $1,000 a month for his family of four's Kaiser Permanente health plan.

"We don't know what to do," said Alvarez, 40, who owns Hector's Honey Farm, a producer and seller of honey, vegetables and eggs. "Sometimes we don't use it, and we think 'We're wasting our money,' but you never know what can happen."

Group insurance plans through employers now cost $1,800 to $2,800 a month in Sonoma County, with, on average, about a third of that paid by the employer, said Bob Shirrell, a Santa Rosa health care consultant.

What Alvarez is paying is about in line with the average private plan in the county, Shirrell said.

"If you're really healthy, and you were willing to take a $2,000 deductible per person, it'll probably run you around $1,200 a month" for a family of four, he said.

For construction worker Joseph Hanke, that's not realistic. "If I go to the doctor, I just have to pay my own bills, it's tough," said the 39-year-old Santa Rosa resident.

A recent eye exam and new glasses cost him $300, he said.

When he's sick, he makes do. "Go buy some Tylenol, there's nothing you can really do -- I've worked a lot sick," he said.

For Adams, the farmer, the hunt for affordable health insurance has shaped her view "of what it means to be a citizen of the wealthiest country of the world," she said.

"We are like a giant business, we are working together, paying taxes, and the fact that we are left alone on health insurance, it just feels like someone dropping the ball on the employees of this country," she said.

News researcher Michele Van Hoeck contributed to this report. You can reach Staff Writer Jeremy Hay at 521-5212 or jeremy.hay@pressdemocrat.com.