Number of uninsured rose by 2.4 million

Hey au, I heard that on NPR. I makes me ashamed big government is not anything I want but I would rather have some government in providing medical care than just leaving it up to the insurance companies and pill makers.

Some time it seems even medical care providers have lost control of the system in the US.

I spent a lot of years without health insurance. It's risky, but the chances of it breaking an individual's bank is low-ish. I now have coverage, but I pay out of pocket and spend about 15% of my monthly income on it.

I agree that the health care industry needs to be restructured.

littlek



You will find the older you get or you have a family, with children, that statement is far from accurate.

true, I guess the bulk of the work force is in their mid-life, so I probably am wrong.

Unisured Nation
If the 43.6 million Americans without health policies formed their own country, would the White House give us $87 billion?

By Patti Davis
NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE


Sept. 30 — I am one of the many Americans who have no health insurance; I haven’t had any for nearly three years now. I woke up this morning to learn that I am now part of a club whose membership has soared to 43.6 million. Before this, I felt terribly self-conscious about my situation. Now, the sheer numbers have emboldened me. We are a force to be reckoned with; we could surround the White House, clog traffic, raise our voices in unison and say…hmm, what should we say? How about something like, “Wouldn’t $87 billion be enough to set up a national health-care program? Shouldn’t $87 billion be spent on America instead of Iraq?”
http://www.msnbc.com/news/974066.asp?0cv=KB20

The article ends with this question "Here’s an idea: With 43.6 million people in the Uninsured Club, maybe we should just form our own country. Then we could ask for a few billion dollars from the White House.

littlek- I was always healthy as a horse. Normally, I would see my gyn, and maybe my internist once a year.

Then BOOM! In 1990, my hospital and medical bills exceeded $150,000. If I had not been insured, me and my husband would both have been in the crapper.

The thing with health, is that you never know. If you play with statistics, older people DO use more health care. On the other hand, you hear stories of young people coming down with all kinds of medical problems, out of the blue.

IMO, it is ALWAYS risky to be without health insurance!

au, there's been some talk for years about using the uninsured as a group and getting group rates for those who either don't work or who don't have coverage through work.

Phoenix - I know! I've repented!

The Health Insurance Crisis

Published: October 2, 2003

Even most experts were surprised by the sharp jump in the number of Americans lacking health insurance last year. The latest Census Bureau figures show that the number of uninsured jumped by 2.4 million, the largest increase in a decade, bringing the national total to 43.6 million uninsured in 2002, or 15.2 percent of the population. The ranks of the uninsured have increased by 10 percent over the past two years, with the likelihood that things may get worse this year.

The lack of health insurance, a problem once confined mostly to the poor and nearly poor, has reached into the lower middle classes, most notably to those earning $25,000 to $49,999 a year, and even to some above $50,000. It is a problem that needs to be addressed by Congress and the administration, which have thus far sat mostly on the sidelines.

Several factors are driving the expanding crisis. The number of unemployed Americans keeps growing in this jobless recovery, thus depriving many people of the opportunity for employer-provided health insurance. Even many full-time workers — an astonishing 20 million last year — lack health coverage.

Many employers, both large and small, are cutting back on the health insurance they provide, either by dropping it entirely or by making it harder for employees to qualify. Some are requiring much higher contributions from workers, so many workers are dropping coverage rather than paying amounts they consider unaffordable.

Underlying the problem is the still-unsolved issue of escalating health care costs, which leave employers struggling to find a way out and individuals staggered by premium increases.

The state and federal Medicaid programs and children's assistance programs have picked up some of the burden by enrolling the poorest of the uninsured. But with virtually all states suffering budget crises and looking to Medicaid for cuts, that safety net is beginning to unravel.

While the number of uninsured has been climbing, Congress has focused mainly on a different issue: the effort to provide prescription drug coverage for the elderly on Medicare. That would add a benefit for millions of Americans who already have basic health insurance but would do nothing to help those currently going without.

Earlier this year President Bush proposed spending $89 billion in tax credits over 10 years to help Americans buy health insurance if they did not have employer-subsidized coverage or access to public programs, and Congress included $50 billion in its budget resolution this year for a reserve fund to address the problem. But neither the president nor Congress has shown any inclination to actually push those plans to fruition.

Health care seems likely to become a significant issue in the presidential campaign and the next session of Congress. At least six candidates competing for the Democratic nomination have put forth health insurance plans of one size or another, and various members of Congress have introduced bills to chip away at the problem. The worsening crisis makes it clear that ways must be found to shore up the coverage provided by employers and to help low-wage workers pay their share of the ever-higher premiums.