| Health Care "UnCovered"
The number of people without any health insurance grew by 7
million to 46.6 million from 2000 to 2005. That means 15.9% of
the total population of the
United States
is uninsured. The number of people insured through the dominant
source of health care coverage, employers, dropped by 4.1
percent – affecting over 3 million people. Among people under
65, the drop was even harder felt: nearly 4.5 million fewer
Americans had employer-provided coverage. 2005 marked the fifth
straight year that the number of uninsured Americans rose.
All are taking the hit and no group is immune from this
decline in coverage. No matter what their age, gender, race,
education level or household income, more and more American
workers are finding themselves at risk with no help in sight.
This National crisis is in desperate need of a National
solution.
Families Need Coverage
Workers are sitting back and watching as Wal-Mart, the
largest company in the world, continues to be irresponsible.
Wal-Mart has continued to help fuel this growing health care
crisis by failing to provide health care coverage to over half
(that’s 750,000) of their employees. This is a company that made
a record profit of $11 billion last year, but shifts 1.39
billion in health care costs to American taxpayers every year.
When parents are uninsured their children also suffer.
Wal-Mart admits that 46% of the children of its employees are
either uninsured or on taxpayer funded public assistance. But
even publicly funded assistance is failing to totally protect
the children of those under or not insured.
Medicaid and the States Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)
have been the safety net for children affected by the decline of
employer-provided health insurance. Medicaid and SCHIP prevented
many children from being uninsured as the number of workers
receiving employment-based benefits was on the decline over the
last five years. But in 2005, that all changed.
For the first time in seven years there is an increase in the
number of uninsured children. From 2004 to 2005 the number of
uninsured children grew by 361,000 to a total of 8.3 million.
Medicaid and SCHIP had 184,000 fewer children in its programs in
2005 than in 2004.
More and more children will be left uninsured and unprotected
as their parent’s employer-provided coverage continues to
decline and the public safety net weakens.
Affordable Quality Healthcare
Americans want a health care system that works for all
citizens, according to a Citizens
Health Care Working Group (CHCWG) report released in
September 2006.
In the report recently presented to Congress and the
President, the CHCWG found a consistent message that Americans
want a public policy affording everyone – regardless of
financial resources or health status – affordable health care
coverage. This coverage should offer high-quality care without
endangering individual or family financial security.
The American consensus is that coverage for all is
reasonable, affordable and doable. Americans believe that the
health care system is not working for many Americans, they want
change, and they want the hard work that will be needed to bring
about change to begin now. The American public wants immediate
fundamental changes in the health care system so Americans are
ensured that their families will be protected.
CHCWG presented six recommendations for moving ahead on a
strategy for the United States
to achieve the broad goal of health care that works for all.
It’s up to political leaders to break the gridlock in
Washington and begin the work making
health care reform job one for congress.
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