Almost 20% of working adults lack insurance

Nearly one of every five working-age adults in Washington state lacks health insurance, a record rate for this decade and a number that's unlikely to fall without comprehensive changes in health care, according to estimates released Monday by the Washington state Office of the Insurance Commissioner.

Some 876,000 residents are or will be uninsured this year, an increase of 150,000 people from 2008, Commissioner Mike Kreidler said.

The 2009 estimates include people who are projected to be disenrolled from the Washington Basic Health Plan by year end.

For 2009, the overall uninsured rate was projected to be about 13 percent. But the rate was more than 18 percent among adults ages 19 and 64 — reflecting a continuing decline in employer-provided coverage, employment rates and rising cost of individual insurance.

Kreidler called the number of uninsured people "staggering" and called the problem "much broader than a moral issue. It's an economic issue."

— Kyung M. Song, staff reporter