What's Wrong with America's Health Care System?

 

America is facing a health care crisis. As of 2006, 47 million U.S. residents have no health insurance, and the number keeps rising. By 2010, the number of uninsured Americans will grow to more than 50 million. That's 50 million people who face bankruptcy if they get sick—or who might avoid seeking treatment altogether.

 

Exploding health costs are devastating working families

 

One in four American say their family has had a problem paying for medical care during the past year—and two-thirds of them had insurance.

 

• Nearly 30 percent say someone in their family has delayed medical care in the past year.

• Health care costs contribute to an estimated 25 percent of housing problems.

• Health costs are a factor in half of personal bankruptcies. Since 2000, an estimated 5 million families have filed for bankruptcy in the aftermath of serious medical problems. In fact, every 30 seconds in the United States someone files for "medical bankruptcy."

• Premiums for family health coverage have surged.

• More than one-third of people who have health insurance worry about losing it.

• Health care is a major issue in every union contract negotiation.

 

(ABC News/Kaiser Family Foundation/US A Today, Health Care in America 2006 Survey, 10/17/ 06; Himmelstein, D, E. Warren, D. Thorne, and S. Woolhander, "Illness and Injury as Contributors to Bankruptcy," Health Affairs Web Exclusive W5-63, 2/2/05; Elizabeth Warren, testimony before House Judiciary Committee, 7/17/07; Kaiser Health Security Watch, June 2007)

 

As costs rise, more lose insurance

 

As the expense of insurance skyrockets, more and more people are becoming uninsured. In 2006, 47 million Americans had no health insurance, 8.6 million more than lacked insurance in 2000. Nearly 8.7 million of America’s uninsured are children. More than eight in 10 uninsured people lived in working households in 2006. One in every eight nonelderly veterans also is uninsured.

(U.S. Census Bureau, 2006; Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, 10/07; Associated Press, 10/30/07)

 

In addition to the uninsured, 24 percent of Americans are underinsured, with insufficient, bare-bones coverage. Altogether, 40 percent of adults younger than 65 have no health coverage or inadequate coverage.

(Consumer Reports, 9/07)

 

If we don't change our current system and these trends continue, the number of uninsured will keep spiraling upward. It's projected that the number of uninsured will hit 56 million if nothing changes in the current trend.

 

It Costs Dearly to Lack Insurance

 

Lack of health insurance leads to roughly 18,000 unnecessary deaths every year in the United States. People without insurance, and people with insurance that saddles them with heavy cost-sharing burdens, are less likely to get preventive care. When preventable or controllable illnesses aren't treated early, they become far more costly to treat.

(Institute of Medicine, www.iom.edu/CMS /3809/4660/17632.aspx; www.nchc.org/facts/coverage.shtml, Wellness Trust to Prioritize Disease Prevention, the Brookings Institution, The Hamilton Project, 4/07)

 

Preventive Care Saves Lives and Money...

 

Prevention Measure	Result
Improved blood sugar control for people with diabetes	40% reduction in risk of eye, kidney and nerve disease
Blood pressure control	33-50% reduction in risk of heart disease and strokes
10% reduction in cholesterol levels	30% reduction in risk of heart attacks and strokes

(Wellness Trust to Prioritize Disease Prevention, The Hamilton Project, 4/07)

 

But People Without Insurance Are Less Likely to Get It

 

	Insured All Year	Uninsured
50- to 63-year-old women who received mammogram in past two years	75%	48%
50- to 64-year-olds who had colon cancer screening in past five years	56%	18%

(Wellness Trust to Prioritize Disease Prevention, The Hamilton Project, 4/07)

 

Employers and small businesses are hurting, too

 

As employers put money into health care instead of wages, health care costs are taking bigger and bigger bites out of our paychecks.

 

Employer Health Coverage Is Drying Up—For Workers and Retirees

 

In 2007, just 60 percent of firms offered health benefits, compared with 69 percent in 2000.

(Kaiser Family Foundation and HRET Employer Health Benefits Survey, 2007)

 

Employer-provided retiree coverage is dwindling even more

 

For those who retire before age 65, when Medicare becomes available, there are virtually no other affordable options for health care coverage. But in 2007, only 33 percent of large private firms (with 200 or more workers) that offered health benefits to employees also offered them to retirees, compared with 66 percent in 1988.

(Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Research and Educational Trust)

 

For more information about our current health care crisis, please visit In American No One Should Go Without Health Care, a campaign of the AFL-CIO.