Americans Pay a Lot for Health Care, Don’t Get Much in Return

by James Parks, Jul 26, 2006

The United States spends more on health care per capita than any other similar country, yet has the largest uninsured population, according to a report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).

Some 16 percent of the U.S. population, or 45.8 million people, did not have any form of health insurance coverage in 2004. Ireland, Austria and Finland spend about half of what the United States spends, as a percentage of gross domestic product, but cover 99 percent to 100 percent of their populations, the report found.

Between 2000 and 2006 in the United States, the number of uninsured under age 65 increased by 6 million, according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Eight of 10 uninsured Americans hold jobs or share households with someone who is employed. Of the nearly 46 million without health insurance, more than 10 million are children.

Meanwhile, the Employment Benefits Research Institite (EBRI) released an issue brief projecting that a couple age 65 who reach average life expectancy will need $295,000 for retiree health expenses. And that figure, the study says, still may underestimate the amoung of money needed to cover such costs.

As employers increasingly shift the cost of health care to their employees, America’s workers are forced to pay higher premiums, deductibles and co-payments—if they can afford such coverage at all.

To pay for soaring health costs and their children’s education, working families are going deeper into debt. A typical middle-income family earning about $45,000 a year saw its debt burden grow by 33.1 percent between 2001 and 2004, even after adjusting for inflation, according to a May report by the Center for American Progress. Debt has expanded by 30.3 percentage points to 108.4 percent of income—the first time that debt exceeded income since the Federal Reserve started conducting the survey.

The AFL-CIO and its affiliates are working for passage of a universal system that provides coverage for all Americans.

Yesterdsay, Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) joined efforts by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and others in Congress with universal health proposals, and unveiled his new AmeriCare legislation, a plan that will provide all Americans with access to affordable, comprehensive health coverage.

Stark describes the plan as:

…a practical proposal to ensure that everyone has affordable health insurance. AmeriCare is based on the principles that the U.S. health system should cover everyone, be affordable, and be meaningful. AmeriCare builds on what works—both employer coverage and Medicare.

At a Capitol Hill press conference, Stark was joined by representatives from the AFL-CIO, the Consumers Union, Families USA and other health care advocates. Says AFL-CIO Legislative Director Bill Samuel:

AmeriCare takes a comprehensive, thoughtful and sensible approach to solving the problems we all know too well. Experience around the world demonstrates that a social insurance system is the most-effective, efficient way to achieve universal coverage, providing comprehensive benefits while controlling costs and driving quality improvements.

The need for universal health care is dramatically outlined in the new EPI report on the imbalance in health care spending and coverage. The report is based on a chapter in a forthcoming EPI book, The State of Working America 2006/2007, a comprehensive review of the U.S. labor market and living standards to be released around Labor Day.

The chapter analyzes comparisons between the United States and 19 other wealthy countries, all members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Some of the other findings also are striking:

• The United States has one of the highest per-capita incomes among the nations compared, but that doesn’t correlate with longer life or lower infant mortality. The latest data (2003) show U.S. life expectancy is lower than in any other of these OECD countries except Denmark.
• If you compare the share of households that earned 50 percent or less of the median income in each country, the United States had the highest level of overall poverty, with 17 percent of its total population, compared with Finland at 5.4 percent and Norway at 6.4 percent

Says Sylvia Allegretto, an EPI economist who co-authored The State of Working America:

Policymakers have not effectively addressed the high and increasing rate of poverty in the United States. The U.S. tolerates these appalling levels of poverty, even though it is among the richest nations.

		Become a Fan on Facebook			Follow Us on Twitter			Subscribe to YouTube			Subscribe to Blog RSS

Print This Article | E-Mail This Article |Comments (0)