Health Care: No, I'm Not Better Off

Luis H., over at Another Liberal Blog, blogged today about the new report that was just released by Families USA, entitled, Health Care: Are you better off today than you were four years ago?, which lays out exactly how grim the health care picture has become under the Bush Administration. Personally, I am struggling to continue paying my Cal-Cobra premiums until I find a new job: $305.80 per month(!) for a healthy, non-smoking female with no negative family medical history! While my premiums have skyrocketed, so have my co-payments for doctor visits and prescription medication, which have doubled in the last year! Like many people I know, I live with the knowledge that I am one medical-emergency from bankruptcy. When I was 16 (many years ago) and had to have back surgery, my family didn't have health insurance ~~ so my father had to scrape together approximately $10,000 to pay the hospital bills ~~ with interest on loans he took out, not to mention the stress and fear the medical situation caused, the ultimate cost of that surgery was probably double the hospital price tag.

I cut-n-paste a portion of Luis' blog down below, but really, you should read his original post, here, especially some of the comments. (Mr. President, are you reading this?) The Presidential debates and mud-slinging are, and will continue to be, dominated by the War in Iraq ~~ while crucial, that topic shouldn't overshadow the importance of health care here in our country, and the dismal prognosis of our health care system, which has one foot in the grave.

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As far as I can tell, health care gets very little coverage in the blogosphere. Yet health care is one of the most important issues Americans face today, and it's one of the areas in which Bush's policies have had the most nefarious effects.

A new report from Families USA, called Health Care: Are you better off today than you were four years ago?, lays out exactly how grim the health care picture has become under Bush:

American workers are paying more for their health insurance and getting less than they were four years ago, and the situation is particularly acute in several states important in the presidential race, said a consumer group that has been critical of President Bush. Families USA also noted that the number of people without insurance jumped significantly since Bush took office, with more than 85 million people uninsured at some point during 2003 or 2004.

Borrowing a comparison President Reagan made famous in the 1980 campaign, Families USA asked whether the nation is better off today than it was four years ago in terms of health care.

"Our analysis leaves no room for debate. The clear answer is no," the group said in a report with a clear political message, although it never mentions Bush by name. Families USA planned events across the nation Tuesday to publicize its findings.

Here are some of the salient points of the report, which you can download here:

• Health insurance premiums paid by workers rose by 35.9 percent from 2000 to 2004.
• Health premiums paid by workers rose nearly three times faster than the average U.S. earnings from 2000 to 2004.
• The number of people whose total health care costs exceeded one-quarter of their annual earnings rose substantially from 2000 to 2004.
• The number of nonelderly people without health insurance at some point over a two-year period rose from 72.5 million in 1999-2000 to 85.2 million during 2003-2004—an increase of 12.7 million people.
• The following 10 states had the highest percentage of non-elderly people who went without health insurance for a period of time during 2003-2004: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, and Texas.
• The following 10 states had the largest number of non-elderly people who went without health insurance for a period of time during 20032004: California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
• Every racial and ethnic group experienced significant growth between 1999-2000 and 2003-2004 in the portion of the nonelderly population that was uninsured.

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