Florida residents are fleeing to other countries, and millions lack health insurance

ORLANDO, Fla. _ Reflecting hard economic times, census figures this week show that there's an exodus of people leaving Florida, that a sizable segment of the state's population lacks health insurance and that many families live in multigenerational households.

The 2008 American Community Survey found that millions of Floridians are without health insurance _ the first time the annual survey has asked about health care. The latest numbers come as Congress is engaged in a heated debate over health-care reform.

The survey also tried to gauge, for the first time since the 2000 census, whether home foreclosures and rising unemployment are forcing children, parents and grandparents to live together in the same house. In Florida, there are more than 240,000 multigenerational households.

The latest census figures confirm what state demographers concluded earlier this year: The recession is not only stunting the growth of Florida and Orlando but is also sending people packing for other states.

MOVING OUT

For a second consecutive year, census figures show more people moving out of Florida to other states than moving in from other parts of the country. In Metro Orlando _ Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Lake counties _ 9,000 more people left Florida than moved in from other states. Lake was the only metro county to gain more people from out of state than it lost. Volusia County also imported more people than it exported.

University of Florida demographer Stan Smith attributed the flow of moving vans leaving the state to the housing crisis and to Florida residents looking for work in other parts of the country.

The 2008 census figures show that Florida grew a paltry 0.4 percent and that Metro Orlando increased just 1.1 percent. Despite people leaving, the population grew because of births and immigrants from other countries. Metro Orlando had 2,054,036 people in 2008, just 22,000 more than in 2007. Before the recession, the area was gaining more than 70,000 people a year.

Hispanics continue to fuel what little growth there is in the Orlando area, accounting for 79 percent of the population increase in 2008. The area's Hispanic population tends to be younger and to have larger families, but Orlando also continues to draw in new Hispanic residents from overseas and other states.

University of Florida demographers also found a decline in Florida's growth rate for 2008. But figures they released earlier this year showed it's likely that Florida actually lost population in 2009 for the first time in 60 years.

NOT INSURED

The 2008 survey found that in Florida, 3.6 million people are not covered by health care _ 21 percent of the population. Among working-age Floridians _ who do not qualify for Medicare _ the statistics are even worse: 27 percent of Floridians between 18 and 64 don't have health insurance, according to the survey.

Texas led the nation in the percentage of people without health insurance, at 24.1 percent. In Massachusetts _ where the state now requires residents to buy health insurance _ 4.1 percent of residents were not covered.

Behind the statistics are people such as Joe Reed. An actor, Reed worked at Disney for 12 years until he was laid off in September 2008.

Reed, who's 54, started to panic. He had undergone gastric bypass surgery a year earlier and required regular blood tests to monitor his health. And because of his history of heart problems and high cholesterol, he was on regular medication.

Before his insurance ran out, he consulted with his doctor, who switched Reed from expensive drugs to generics that he could pick up for $4 at Walmart. For nearly a year, he never visited a doctor and crossed his fingers, hoping nothing would go wrong.

He's still working sporadically and, in June, thanks to five months of work at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, he qualified to get insurance from the actors union. Now he's still looking for work, but grateful to have insurance. "I haven't had to be hospitalized," said Reed, who lives in Orlando. "I'm praying I'm going to stay healthy."

UNDER ONE ROOF

The recession has also sparked a new line of inquiry for the census: how many families are moving in together.

From Yvonne Williams' standpoint, it's more common than you may think.

Williams, her husband and three of their kids, ages 12, 15 and 22, live in Orlando, sharing their house with Yvonne's 70-year-old mother, Carole Riddick. Yvonne Williams knows at least three other families with at least three generations living under the same roof.

In Florida, only 3.4 percent of households are multigenerational. But in Hawaii and California, these living arrangements are much more common. In Hawaii, 7.4 percent of households are multigenerational, while in California, 5 percent of households contain at least three generations. Demographers say those states, like Florida, have large numbers of immigrants, but they also have high real-estate costs that have forced some families to live together.

This is the first year that the American Community Survey has asked about multigenerational families, however, so the numbers can't be compared to previous years' surveys.

For the Williamses, the move to a multigenerational household was born of necessity and love. When Riddick's memory started failing and she couldn't live alone, the Williams family opened their home to her.

But it's a financial move as well, because they can combine Riddick's retirement income with their own incomes to help the family make ends meet.

"It definitely helps to pool the income between all the family members, rather than everybody struggling on their own," said Yvonne Williams. "And I think in this recession, there's going to be more of a trend toward that."