"You can't really choose to go without medical care sometimes so people end up coming here for food because there is no money left."

The center serves approximately 200 people a day, a number Tibbitts and others don't foresee changing anytime soon.

"I think the crisis in health care and the number of people working extremely low-wage jobs are the real problems," he said.

Raising the federal minimum wage — which hasn't been done since 1997 — would help, Tibbitts said.

"A four-person family with both parents working at the federal minimum wage would still qualify for the food stamp program," he said. "That basically means one branch of government has determined they can't make ends meet enough to pay for food, while another branch of government says it believes their wages are sufficient. It's rather ironic."

Utah's own 2003 Health Status Survey echoes the national trend of the growing problem of having health insurance.

More Utahns said last year they lacked insurance because of economic reasons, with 47.5 percent who didn't have insurance because of a lost job or due to changing employers, compared to 29.5 percent in 2001.

Additionally, more people couldn't afford coverage.

While 52.1 percent of uninsured Utahns said they couldn't afford health coverage in 2001, that number jumped to 66.3 percent in 2003, according to survey results.

Lois Haggard, director of the health department's Office of Public Health Assessment, said surveys performed over the past decade in Utah show the challenge of affording health insurance remains a constant for about 10 percent of the population.

And just as national dependence on public health care programs has grown, so has the need in Utah.

When the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) held open enrollment this spring, spokeswoman Anna West said the state received 10,369 applications — some representing more than one child.

The state was able to accept 8,971 enrollees.

"We also are finding our resources are not keeping pace with the need," West said.

The national census data show a 1.1 percent decrease in Utah in the number of people who lack health insurance. That decrease is a statistical assertion the public policy group Utah Issues rejects.

"They are counting the people in Utah who are the Primary Care Network," said health policy analyst Judi Hilman.

The network, a government funded program for adults without health insurance, serves 15,000 people.

But Hilman said the network is only for "healthy" people and not a real safety net.

"There's no specialty care and no in-patient hospital services. If you're not healthy, it is not coverage, it is something else."

---

E-mail: amyjoi@desnews.com