There's an avalanche of bad news about healthcare. It's making me very worried.
But before I lay all that on you, here's the good news.
The good news is Elizabeth Edwards. Elizabeth is smacking down John McCain at every turn in the road.
Now to the bad news, there's so much.
Let's begin with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that the cost of health insurance is far outpacing wages.
Cost of Insurance Far Outpaces Income
Americans who get health insurance for their families through their jobs have seen their premiums increase 10 times faster than their income in recent years, according to a new analysis of government data. The study, released today by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, shows that a growing share of workers’ earnings is being absorbed by the increasing cost of health insurance.
Nationwide, the amount employees pay for family coverage increased 30 percent from 2001 to 2005, while family policyholders’ income increased just 3 percent over the same period.
If this grim news isn't bad enough, how's this to ruin your day? There's not going to be any immediate relief for the American people--that is, unless we demand immediate relief.
I feel today they way I felt in November of 2000. I stared out my window certain I would see clusters of people in the streets. I was so sure we would not accept such an egregious theft of our precious election lying down. But I was wrong.
So today, I'm asking the same question. Where is the outrage? How can McCain be doing so well in the polls? Why are we accepting two very flawed health plans from Clinton and Obama?
Are you prepared to wait five, seven or ten years to see affordable and guaranteed healthcare become a right of citizenship?
I'm not.
Candidates' Health-Care Ideas May Not Offer Immediate Cure
"Everybody is talking about the same kinds of things, but they are very difficult to do," said Robert Reischauer, president of the Urban Institute and a former director of the Congressional Budget Office. "If we started on a campaign right now, you'd be lucky to see the product of that in seven to 10 years, if everything was meshing right."
It gets worse. Some cash strapped hospitals are now demanding a down payment on chemotherapy.
Where is the outrage? You need to get angry or there will be no change and Americans will continue to die.
Cash Before Chemo: Hospitals Get Tough
Bad Debts Prompt Change in Billing; $45,000 to Come InWhen Lisa Kelly learned she had leukemia in late 2006, her doctor advised her to seek urgent care at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. But the nonprofit hospital refused to accept Mrs. Kelly's limited insurance. It asked for $105,000 in cash before it would admit her.
Sitting in the hospital's business office, Mrs. Kelly says she told M.D. Anderson's representatives that she had some money to pay for treatment, but couldn't get all the cash they asked for that day. "Are they going to send me home?" she recalls thinking. "Am I going to die?"
And so many Americans simply do without. The collapse of our healthcare system has burrowed deep into the middle class.
Copays mean no treatment for somePractically every week, the surgeon waits -- but knows all the same that the patient won't be coming.
Dr. Fernando Garcia is ready to operate. Sometimes he has even offered to waive his own fees to save a life or take away pain.
Nevertheless, some operations don't proceed. The patients are scared off -- or warned off -- by their potential hospital bill, he said.
. . .For others without health insurance -- including the swelling ranks of middle-class families priced out of coverage -- required down payments can be insurmountable.
Need chemotherapy? Pay $20,000 to get started.
David Cecero, president of JPS, said that, far from limiting access, the health network has reached out to the community, investing millions in opening new locations, adding physicians and other personnel, and purchasing state-of-the-art technology. JPS also started a new discount program in October, so more people would be eligible.
"We have not done anything that has directly, negatively impacted access to healthcare," Cecero said.
He acknowledged that uninsured patients who don't qualify for Connection or the new discount program are on their own unless they reach a medical crisis.
Mad? Furious? Protest against AHIP - June 19 - San Francisco
__________________________
