Poverty continues to be concentrated in New Castle County, accounting for 56% of the total. However, the poverty rate increases as we travel south in the state, with Sussex County at 12.7%. The child poverty rate, according to this 1997 survey, is 15.4%, with the rate for children from 5 to 17 years of age being 13.8%. These two rates, like the poverty rate as a whole, increase as we go from north to south, with the child poverty rate in Sussex County exceeding that of both the other counties, as well as the state as a whole. The rate of poverty for Delaware children under five years of age is 17.1%. Similarly, median income per county declines in a southward movement, with New Castle County exceeding the state median by about $6,500 and Sussex County a little more than $8,000 below that mark.

School-Age Poverty

This same survey estimates poverty by school district throughout the state of Delaware. The same pattern applies to the findings here, with the majority of poor children attending school in northern Delaware. Northern districts account for 53% of school-age children in poverty (9,664), with the districts in the central part of state making up one-fourth of that total (4484) and the southern districts representing 22% (3,966). However, while the north has one district with a poverty rate of 20% (2,749 children in poverty), there are two districts in the central part of the state with 20% rates (with a combined total of 2,363 children in poverty). In the southern part of the state, there are three districts which exceed 20% poverty rates (one of them with a 35% rate of school-age child poverty), with a combined total of 2,783 poor children among them.

Nearly one in every six Americans (42.6 million) are without health insurance. Despite the longest economic boom in history, the number of persons without health insurance dipped just 4% in 1999.[1] With the current economic downturn, some states are already cutting back coverage with Oklahoma mailing out termination letters to Medicaid recipients and North Carolina imposing a freeze on enrollment in the CHIP program for children.[2]

Compared to other wealthy industrialized nations, the United States health care system provides coverage to the fewest and costs the most. Six of the eight OECD countries have universal coverage for all of their citizens. [3] The two countries without universal coverage are the United States and Germany which does not require its most affluent citizens to purchase health insurance. In 1997, health expenditures as a percentage of the GDP (gross domestic product) ranged from a high of 13.6% in the United States to 6.7% in the United Kingdom. The OECD median was 7.6%. When compared to the other OECD countries, infant mortality rates are the highest and life expectancy rates are the lowest in the U.S. [4]

"Market competition has not succeeded in bringing the U.S. health care costs in line with those of industrialized countries. There is no evidence of sustained quality improvement. Market based reform has not expanded health insurance coverage but has rather, directly or indirectly, increased the number of under insured and uninsured Americans. Medical research and education have suffered and medicine's social mission declined." [5]

In Delaware 11.4% of the state's population lacked health care coverage in the year 2000, compared to 13.4% for the region (Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York). [6] From the mid 1990s to the present the rate of uninsured in Delaware decreased from 13.6% to 11.4%. This drop in the number of Delawareans without health insurance is credited primarily to the increased coverage of children through the Healthy Children Program initiated in January 1999.

The number of uninsured children is estimated by one source as 32,000 (a 15.1% rate), with uninsured children in families at or below 200% of poverty being 23,109 (an increased rate of 27.6%). [7]

The bulk of the 96,000 uninsured Delawareans are the working poor who do not qualify for Medicaid, are not provided health insurance by their employers, and whose income is insufficient to purchase health care coverage.

The profile of the uninsured Delawarean: single, white, male over age 17, working with an income above poverty level.

Both infant mortality rates and the percentage of low birth weight babies are higher in Delaware than in the nation. Since 1983 in Delaware, the percentage of low birth weight babies has increased. As both infant mortality rates and low birth weight are correlated with poverty, it should come as no surprise that child poverty rates are increasing in Delaware where one in six children now live in poverty.[10]

The good news of low unemployment and higher real wages over recent years is tempered by the fact that workers continue to live at or near poverty and make up an increasing proportion of the officially poor. A recent study by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) found that almost 56% of poor families with children in Delaware have at least one worker in them and that 52% of poor families have earnings as a majority of their income (DELAWARE: Poverty and Program Trends, August 2000, www.cbpp.org) . Another CBPP study, The Poverty Despite Work Handbook, found that there are 31,000 people in working poor families and 21,000 children in those families.

The Handbook also found that 30% of Delaware families with children who live at or below the official poverty line have a full-time, year-round worker present. Within the range of 100% to 150% of poverty, 71% of the families with children

have a full-time, year-round worker. Over 90% of all Delaware families with children who fall below 200% of poverty have at least one worker, and 59% have a full-time, year-round worker.

The table below was originally developed for the Citizens' Inquiry on Welfare Reform, held in Dover, Delaware. The table has been updated to 1999 figures, including scenarios which reflect typical current placement wages and hours worked by ABC recipients. It illustrates the dilemma of welfare-to-work efforts. Even though Scenario 2 and 3 allow the family of three to rise above official "poverty," the expenses in this albeit frugal budget exceed income in all three scenarios, as well as the "pre-work" situation from which the family began.