More Bad News About the Nation’s Health Care Crisis

We’ve seen a spate of reports in recent days highlighting several aspects of the nation’s health care crisis. In the wake of the U.S. Census Bureau report last month pointing to an increase in America’s uninsured—more than 46 million people went without health coverage at some point in 2004—this new data further highlight the urgent need to elect candidates this fall who will address the problem head on. Stephanie Taylor, an online writer for the AFL-CIO community affiliate Working America, pulled together some of these recent reports.

Health care is the fastest rising cost for working families, concludes a study conducted by the Health Research Educational Trust. Since 2000, the cost of family health coverage has risen 87 percent. Consumer prices have risen 18 percent. But workers’ pay has increased just 20 percent. 

The report, published this week, finds the cost of employee health care rose at double the inflation rate last year—and far faster than the increase in worker pay.

Helen Darling, president of the National Business Group on Health, told a reporter from The New York Times:

The workers of the United States continue to give their pay raises to the health system.

Of the 3,159 employers surveyed, nearly half of those currently offering health benefits to their employees say they are “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to increase the amount employees pay for coverage in the coming year. Another 6 percent say they were considering dropping their health benefits altogether.

In the article in The New York Times, small business owner Tom Zimmerman in Livonia, Mich., reports spending $250,000 this year to pay for health coverage for his 20 employees. He told the reporter:

Our wages have stagnated while Mr. Blue Cross and Blue Shield takes our raises.

This survey was closely followed by a similar study from the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Health Insurance Eroding for Working Families reports health coverage provided by employers declined for the fifth straight year in 2005.

The number of people without health insurance grew significantly for the fifth year in a row. Nearly 46.6 million Americans were uninsured in 2005—up almost 7 million since 2000….Over 3 million fewer people of all ages had employer-provided insurance in 2005 than in 2000 as a result of rising health costs coupled with weak labor demand. However, this decline does not take into account population growth. As many as 9 million more people would have had employer-provided health insurance in 2005 if the coverage rate had remained at the 2000 level. 

This is one of the most alarming trends in health care. More and more of uninsured families are also working families. In fact, most of the 9 million uninsured children in the United States live in homes where at least one parent works full-time. In more than one-quarter of the cases, there are two working parents. As long as the cost of health coverage rises twice as fast as wages, this trend will keep getting worse.

The Commonwealth Fund even gave the U.S. health care system a failing grade compared with other industrialized nations—partly because so many Americans lack access to the most basic levels of care.

No wonder the Citizens’ Health Care Working Group recently found a majority of Americans support revamping the U.S. health care system to provide benefits for all. Read more about this poll here.

While we work to elect lawmakers who will ensure we all have access to affordable health care, we at Working America also offer a Health Care Savings Program in partnership with Union Plus. Check out the discounts here and see if you could save.

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