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.
AFL-CIO Health Care for America Survey Closed
More than 25,000 people took the AFL-CIO 2009 Health Care for America Survey and more than 6,000 told us their personal stories of struggles with the nation’s broken health care system.
The survey is now closed and the results are being analyzed. A full report on how respondents are coping with their own health care costs and how they believe health care reform should be shaped will be released later this month.
Many of those who took the time to share their stories told us how they have lost their jobs and their health coverage in the economic downturn and now are struggling to foot the bill for their health care—or are going without coverage. Others told of paying more and more in premiums and co-payments, yet finding fewer and fewer health care costs covered.
Still Time to Take the AFL-CIO Health Care Survey
There’s still time to take the AFL-CIO’s 2009 Health Care for America Survey. Many of those who have done so are telling us how they have lost their jobs in the economic downturn and now are struggling to foot the bill for their health care—or are going without coverage. And those who still receive health care coverage through their employer say they are paying more and more as health care costs soar, according to a new study.
Even when workers struggle to pay for their own health coverage, the for-profit insurance industry puts up roadblocks. Ann, from Jackson, Tenn., writes at the AFL-CIO survey that because of a “pre-existing condition,” when she tries to secure coverage, she is turned down. Now she says:
I get my health insurance through my church—I pray that I don’t get sick.
Workers Skimp on Health Care While Greedy Millionaires Fight Real Reform
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Here’s the latest example of how far corporations will go to stop real health care reform. Rick Scott, a multimillionaire, is putting $5 million of his own fortune into an ad campaign against President Obama’s health care plan. But what Scott doesn’t say in his ads is that he ran a company that had to pay the largest fine in history for Medicare fraud.
According to The New York Times, Scott was ousted as head of Columbia/HCA by his own board of directors in 1997 amid the nation’s biggest health care fraud scandal. The company pleaded guilty and paid $1.7 billion to settle charges, including the overbilling of state and federal Medicare programs.
Scott’s plan for a market-driven health care system likely won’t find much support among the millions of Americans who work every day and have to choose between buying groceries or taking care of serious health issues. Workers like “mosnowbird,” who is losing his sight but can’t afford to visit a doctor.
Progressive Caucus Backs Public Health Insurance Plan
While one of the AFL-CIO’s key health care reform principles—a public health insurance option—has been vigorously attacked by the private insurance industry, it received important backing last week from the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC).
The CPC long has backed a single-payer approach for health care reform. But last week, the group said that is not a line in the sand that could not be crossed to win its backing of health care reform legislation.
In a letter to congressional leaders, the CPC said its 77 members could support a public insurance plan option within a reformed health care system that maintained private insurance. But, the group also stressed that it’s the “minimum” needed to win their support for reform legislation.
