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Health Care Survey: Costs Out of Control, Need for Reform ‘Urgent’ |
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Out-of-control health care costs are forcing working families to forgo needed medical care and shredding family bank accounts, while private health insurance companies deny claims and, far too often, refuse to provide coverage.
The results of the 2009 Health Care for America Survey—sponsored by the AFL-CIO and Working America—show that more than half of the 23,460 people who took the survey cannot get the health care they need at a price they can afford and one-third say they forgo basic medical care because of its high price. In a nearly unanimous response, survey takers say health care reform is urgent.
Says AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker:
Our current system is broken and this survey shows how our fractured system hurts both the insured and uninsured alike. The time for real health care reform is now. We simply can’t wait any longer.
Amber was one of the people who submitted a story out of a total of 6,409 stories dealing with struggles with the broken health care system. The Florida resident says she has health insurance but:
I find myself trying to determine what is going to get refilled, and if I can still see the doctor for follow up….I just don’t have the copay because I still have to afford the gas to get to and from work. I am constantly finding myself rationing my medication and not taking it as prescribed because I can’t afford to get it all the time.
Amber and nearly every other respondent—97 percent—say health care reform is urgent. And 95 percent say health care reform should give people the choice of private health insurance or a public health insurance plan option. (Click here for the entire survey report.)
A public insurance plan option for workers and families that either have private insurance coverage or no coverage at all is one of the AFL-CIO’s key health care reform principles.
With Congress in the middle of shaping health care reform legislation, the AFL-CIO survey adds the voice of working families to a debate that is too often dominated by the insurance and pharmaceutical companies and their multimillion-dollar ad campaigns and phony grassroots groups. The survey’s results and the personal health care horror stories are being shared with lawmakers and media at every level.
Respondents reported that even having health insurance is not a shield against unaffordable health care costs and worry.
- 80 percent of those with insurance say their health care costs increased this past year, with 34 percent saying they increased a lot.
- 43 percent of people with insurance say they are not able to get the care they need at a price they can afford.
- 23 percent say their insurance company refused to pay for a doctor-ordered test or treatment.
- 27 percent say their insurer denied claim they believe should have been paid.
- 71 percent are dissatisfied with health care costs.
- 73 percent are worried about being able to pay for health care in the next year.
People who do not receive health care coverage through work and must buy insurance on the private market face even greater health care costs and concerns than those with employer-provided or Medicare coverage.
- 74 percent say they are dissatisfied with their insurance coverage.
- 40 percent say they skipped a doctor-recommended test, treatment or follow-up because of the cost.
- 33 percent say they did not see a doctor when sick because of the cost.
- 48 percent say their costs have increased significantly during the past year.
The combination of the health care crisis and the nation’s worst economic collapse in decades has created a perfect storm battering working families.
- As the economy has worsened, health care has been lost along with jobs. Nearly a quarter of respondents say someone in their household lost health care coverage in the past year because of losing or changing jobs.
- 63 percent of respondents say the economic downturn has impacted their households.
- 88 percent say they have just enough to get by (56 percent) or are falling behind (32 percent). Only 12 percent say they are getting ahead. Sixty-two percent of the uninsured say they are falling behind.
In other key findings, 83 percent say health insurers have too much influence on their health care and treatment and 94 percent say the government should set stronger rules and standards for private health insurance companies.
On Thursday, thousands of union, health care and community activists are set to take part in what is likely to be the largest-ever health care reform rally and lobby day. Join them on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Click here for more information.
13 Comments
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NO! The vast majority of working people in this country do not want “reform” of the for-profit health care “system”. We the people, demand action now to meet the desperate needs of MILLIONS OF PEOPLE for health care. To do this it is essential to completely ABOLISH all systems of so-called “reform”… that maintains “health care insurance” owned and controlled by gangster corporations.
Please read this article which explains why this is so.
Take the profit out of health care
23 June 2009
Americans are overwhelmingly dissatisfied with the state of the nation’s health care system. A New York Times/CBS news poll released over the weekend showed that 85 percent of respondents said that the health care system needed to be fundamentally changed or rebuilt.
The survey also found that 72 percent would support a government-administered insurance plan, and that half of those questioned thought the government would do a better job than private insurers at providing medical coverage.
The reality, however, is that health care reform being promoted by the Obama administration, and being drafted and debated in the House and Senate, will not address the burning health care needs of millions of adults and children. The entire debate in the White House and Congress is framed from the standpoint of cutting costs, rationing care and defending the profits of the giant health care conglomerates.
….
“The outcome of Obama’s reforms will be, in the end, that the majority of Americans will have less health care than they do at present. Indeed, the state government of California, with the full support of the Obama administration, is already planning the elimination of key social programs, including subsidized health care to hundreds of thousands of children.”
OUR VERY LIVES DEPENDS UPON THIS ISSUE!
Read the full article following the link below. Thank you.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jun2009/pers-j23.shtml
My family has a small business in Indiana and cannot afford to give it’s employees any kind of health care, that’s why we agree with a large portion of America on the single payer system. Born in Europe I paid for our health care with insurance stamps in a little book, so did the employer everybody worked for? Until the mass legal and illegal immigration into my country of birth all citizens had exceptional medical services. It insured us of surgery, eyes and teeth care for all the people. Today Europe is under considerable pressure from the millions of foreign labor poured into my nation and other industrialized nations. Why American newspaper always seem to quote that European health care is free–is beyond me? Nothing is free! We paid for it through our employers, but we were–NOT–subsidizing for profit insurance companies?
Every health insurance company removes their pound of flesh, their co-pays, deductible, premiums and of course pre-existing conditions. These nefarious businesses are already spending millions of dollars, spreading rhetoric and propaganda on TV, radio and magazines. They are truly worried that there mammoth profits are in jeopardy, because for once the majority of the American people are not listening to their lies. Yes! You do wait for surgical procedures, but no more than three months. Years ago, I had been out of the country visiting relatives in Australia. When I returned their was a letter waiting for me, for an appointment with a nose surgeon.
We must take into consideration that a American government pool of health care money, far exceeds European standards and would cover every citizen and legal resident. Only the well heeled population don’t care for it and the for profit trillion dollar business base have issues, because they have so much to lose?
Please go on the record in support of the great democratic socialist and Independent Bernie Sanders’s Single Payer bill S. 703 and the Medicare for All bill HR 676. Why do we keep dealing with the rip-off insurance corporations and their Demopublican lackeys in Congress instead of strongly advocating socialized insurance? Unless we do we will end up getting a weak ‘public insurance option’ in exchange for an individual mandate that forces people to buy worthless expensive plans from insurance companies who are lobbying against our interests and a tax on benefits. Now Obama supports taxing benefits like our enemy McCain did.
Wel what I read the so-called “public” option currently being talked about will cut the 46-47 million uninsured by a third, so looks like we aren’t going to get a chance to opt into the public plan. If labor would have fought for and demanded single payer health care when busy in the photo ops with Obama, single payer would be on the table and closer to reality. Yet labor endorsed employer based HC, which is slowly becoming a thing of the past, as employers are dropping insurance coverage for teir employees.
Demand Single Payer, it is what will work best! Everyone IN Nobody OUT!
As an Environmental Technologist, I can not imagine a health care
system that could be viable as long as it ignores the effects of toxic
chemicals on health. A Congressional Report states that of the 1,400 chemicals known to cause cancer, less than 6% are tracked
was done by our now Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. In
reference; a newspaper story titled, “U.S. Lags in Toxicity Data” by
SUNNY KAPLAN, Times Staff Writer Wednesday, May 3, 2000.
I have posted a link to a database that lists illnesses with the toxic
chemicals that can cause them. It is now linked in with a
review and comments at :>
http://people.tribe.net/toxicreverend
And then there are the non-lethal biological weapons known as
“Incapacitating Agents” such as “mycoplasma”. These are well known
to be associated with several dozen chronic illnesses and cancers.
And the organic (not genetically spliced) mycoplasma’s were tested
on hundreds of American cities for decades. According to
government documentation that is now posted at the web cite of
some VERY UPSET Gulf War Veterans http://www.gulfwarvets.com
For peer reviewed medical journals regarding chronic illnesses and
“Incapacitating Agents” see the Institute Of Molecular Medicine
http://www.immed.org
There is a video by Garth Nicolson PhD about the “Biological Weapons
Experiments on the American People” posted at my Myspace profile
with resource links in the comments of the video section.
The “Toxic Lotto” of chemicals can impair the immune system (as
can radiation exposure such as depleted uranium), causing a
susceptibility to such “Stealth Infections” as mycoplasma’s that can
take years to develop symptoms from. To clarify, the organic and
not genetically modified mycoplasma’s can take years and the
genetically spliced mycoplasma’s can cause symptoms with in
months. As stated, these mycoplasma’s are highly associated with
a few dozen chronic illnesses (like Rheumatoid Arthritis) in PEER
REVIEWED MEDICAL JOURNALS !
Blessings,
Tom Krohmer
Environmental Technologist
Toxic Revelations - The Toxic Reverend blog
http://toxicreverend.blogspot.com/
aka
The Toxic Reverend
http://www.myspace.com/toxicreverend
Or just Google “Toxic Reverend” and my Myspace profile comes
right up, followed by the Tribe profile with the toxic chemical
database link.
Unfortunately, a public option will not bring costs down. As long as we have a market-driven system dominated by private insurance, health care is going to remain unaffordable for millions of Americans. Thirty years of working for the post office taught me how hard it is for a public program with universal service obligations to compete with private entities which can pick and choose their markets.
It’s going to take well over a trillion dollars in tax dollars to subsidize insurance coverage for everybody who doesn’t have insurance now. A public option would be cheaper to administer, but it would also attract all the higher-risk folks whom whom the pivate companies find it unprofitable to insure–driving its costs up.
Why blow all that money setting up a safety valve for private insurers when we could spend it directly on medical care?
This is really not news at all. The American public is hurting over healthcare policies and are demanding action on the issue.
As a retiree, I was stuck by the companies and the present insurance is “token” compared to a decade ago. Medicare is not a good insurance compared to coverage many working folks enjoyed.
Should the politicans not pass a comprehensive overhaul of healthcare (not insurance reform), there will be hell to pay at election time.
Also, let me note this: the supporters of single-payer healthcare are very, very unhappy that some have “stacked the deck” against this reform and some our leaders went along with this. For my 2 cents worth: Pass HR676 now.
Building Bridges Radio: Your Community and Labor Report
National Edition
Produced by Ken Nash and Mimi Rosenberg
**************************************
Band Aid Approach To Hemorrhaging Health Care System
Continues To Prevail
with
U.S. Congressman John Conyers
The economic crisis has increased the urgency for real health
care reform now, yet the President and Congress persist in
advocating half measures, ignoring the real problem, the
health insurance industry. But, the voices for comprehensive,
meaningful reform like Rep. Conyers, whose legislation HR 676,
a single payer or Medicare for all bill continue to be raised.
Rep. Conyers makes the case for health care for all at an event
honoring one of the most vocal proponents of single payer,
Marilyn Clement, National Coordinator of Healthcare-Now!
**********
Do You Want To Get Sick To Your Stomach
Then Think About The Cost Of Being Sick In America
with
Dr. David Himmelstein, primary care physician,
Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical
School and co-founder of Physicians for a National Health
Program
A frightening look at a new Harvard study finds that medical
problems contributed to nearly two-thirds of all bankruptcies.
Surprisingly, most of those bankrupted by medical problems had
health insurance. Covering the uninsured isn’t enough, but
unfortunately, Washington politicians seem all too ready to cave
in to insurance firms. We’ll also examine the highlights of Sen.
Edward Kennedy’s draft health care bill, which some say is the
most liberal in Congress, and find out if it is.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
To Download or listen to this 27:13 minute program,
go to
http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/33918
or
http://www.archive.org/details/BuildingBridgesNationalConyersHimmelsteinOnHealthCareForAll
for more information contact Ken Nash - knash@igc.org
Building Bridges is regularly broadcast live over WBAI,
99.5 FM in the N.Y.C Metropolitan area on Mondays from
7-8pm EST and is streamed, archived and pod cast at
http://www.wbai.org .
Our website is http://www.buildingbridgesradio.org
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I agree health care is getting too expensive, but I argue it’s because we’ve OVERLY BURDENED THE SYSTEM with four things:
1. Regulation at the Federal level
2. Lack of competition
3. Personal accountibility
4. Torts out of control
Take care of these problems first, then let’s see what we need to do.
And I question the figures we always hear on 40-50 M people without health care. Three questions need to be asked regarding this:
1. How many of these folks don’t really care about having health insurance, even if it was fairly affordable (e.g., the young & “invincible”)?
2. How many are illegal aliens?
3. Is health care (for all) a right granted specifically in the US Constitution?
A Troy-based company in Michigan created http://www.medtipster.com, which is a drug price comparison Web site. It allows consumers to type in their drug name, dosage and ZIP code, and can find prescription drugs available on discount generic programs and where they can find them in their neighborhoods. The site will eventually offer users information on scheduled immunizations, health screenings and mini-clinics in their area; recalls and warnings; an “Ask the Pharmacist” feature; and an online community in which individuals can share information. If you’re uninsured like me, look into other options http://medtipster.com/search.php
It is high time for the health insurance companies to get their costs in line. Under the republicans not for profits became for profit compounding the problem thus creating this current health care crisis. Privatization and for profit was the problem.
Having a not for profit public option is a viable solution for cot containment and the elimination of greedy profit taking by insurance company ex’s.
We must have a public, not of profit option for quality health care and all Americans should be allowed to chose that option if they so desire.
For profit Health Insurance companies currently make excess profit by denying claims and cherry picking health people over those with illness. This barbaric process must stop now.
It is time to re-join the freee civilized world an provide Universal Health care for all Americans like the rest of the civilized world.
UNIVERSAL SINGLE PAYER. HR676 or S703. We must let Obama and our legislators hear us. We “the people” must demand it.
What happened to “Universal” Health Care? The Clinton Plan failed because it turned out to be just another bureaucracy written by lawyers. Isn’t time we changed course?
Why can’t we get it straight and separate Health “Care” from Health “insurance”? And separate a public health care “option” from “insurance” as well? At first glance, the public insurance option appears to be the same rocky, pothole ridden road as Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance. We don’t need public insurance that competes with private industry. We don’t need a plan that “insures” profits. It will just lead to another corporate welfare bailout. We need a plan than “provides” public health care.
The key failure of the government’s bailout plans has essentially been addressing corporate profits, rather than investment risk. Protect our citizens instead. Why should we pay high prices supported by our own tax dollars? How economically backwards is that!
We need a Health “Care” Plan. Preventative care, including ongoing maintenance for the most common life threatening illnesses, such as heart disease and certain cancers, should be covered under a Universal Health Care Plan. Done correctly the Plan would both reduce the most significant risks for insurers and reduce costs for all Americans.
“Protect and defend”. It’s the most fundamental purpose of government. We live in an age where every citizen can have access to healthcare. That should be our right. Healthy children grow up to contribute more to our society. Healthy Americans are less of a burden on our economy. All taxpayers should contribute; all Americans will benefit.