46 Million American lack Health Insurance

[J.R.E.]

Sad Indeed !, A steady increase over the last 5 years... ( whats wrong with this picture)


http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-poor30.html


46 million Americans lack health insurance
August 30, 2006

BY ANDREW HERRMANN Staff Reporter
 

A record 46.6 million people in the United States -- nearly 16 percent -- live without medical insurance, including 1.8 million in Illinois, the U.S. Census said Tuesday.

The national figures for 2005 represented a 2.9 percent increase over 2004, as 1.1 million more residents found themselves living without a health care safety net.

Last year marked the fifth straight increase nationally in the number who lack health benefits. Meanwhile, medical expenses rose three times as fast as wages in 2005, researchers say.

Illinois, with about 14.3 percent of its population without insurance, was statistically the same as 2005.

Most of the uninsured are employed workers who can't afford premiums or lack access to affordable health coverage, say Chicago area activists.

At CommunityHealth, a clinic at 2611 W. Chicago, some 6,000 uninsured are served annually. Most patients have at least one chronic condition, such as diabetes or depression, and many work more than one job, said executive director Judy Haasis.

"They're earning too much money for public entitlements but not enough to afford premiums,'' said Haasis. "It's an indictment of the health care system in this country.''

"This being one of the wealthiest countries in the world and 46 million aren't insured? It's embarrassing,'' added Sister Sheila Lyne, president of Mercy Hospital and Medical Center, 2525 S. Michigan.

The problem is stymied by politics. ''The parties are so far apart that they can't even talk about how to move this thing ahead,'' said Robert Blendon, a professor at the Harvard University School of Public Health in Boston.

The Westchester-based Access to Care, funded by private and public dollars, arranges fee-based coverage for the uninsured. It served 10,000 people this year and has a waiting list of 3,000, said spokeswoman Kate Barnickel.

Group: Chicago poverty jumps



A typical client is Carol Grove, 51, of Evanston. The divorced mother of one makes around $30,000 annually as a manager at a distribution company. Premiums for the health care offered by her employer would eat up about half of her salary, she said.

As Grove picks up her high blood pressure medication at Wal-Mart, she's seen some people pay as much as $500 for pharmaceuticals out of their own pocket. "You can go without gasoline and cut back on food,'' but many people need drugs to live, she explained.

While Access to Care helps with her current needs, she fears an emergency: "$50,000, $100,000 in [hospital] bills would destroy me financially,'' she said.

Other census statistics released Tuesday showed that the nation's poverty rate was unchanged -- the first year it hasn't increased since before President Bush took office. About 37 million Americans, or about one in eight, live under the poverty line. Illinois' poverty rate was 11.9 percent, down from 12.5 percent. A family of four is considered impoverished if it had annual income of $19,971 or less.

The median household income nationally -- half make more, half make less -- was $46,300, a slight increase from 2004.

The Illinois Poverty Summit, in an analysis of local numbers, said about 21.3 percent of Chicago residents lived in poverty in 2005, or some 573,486 people, up from the previous year's 571,727. Cook County's poverty rate increased to 15 percent in 2005, up from from 14.6 percent in 2004.

Chicago's median household income decreased in 2005 to $41,015 from $42,033 in 2004.

Contributing: Sun-Times wires

aherrmann@suntimes.com






Ray

[RobT]

It is sad when the most wealthiest of all the countries in the world cannot even take care oif their own.

RobT

PS I still do not have health insurance!

9/27/2005-1st test results
Viral Load >1,000,000
CD4 204
CD4%age 18
CD4/CD8 ratio .23
11/24/2005- Sustiva/Truvada
04/18/2006
Viral Load 140
CD4 402
CD4%age .21
CD4/CD8 ratio .39
06/27/2006
Viral Load 42
CD4 409
CD4%age .21
08/01/2006
Viral load- undetectable
CD4 493
CD4%age .33

Next appt. 09/22/2006

[randym431]

Issues like this get me going.
Whats wrong with health insurance in the US is its tied to your job. Got a good job, then probably good insurance. If not, then no or poor insurance. Thats the way it has been forever. Now, good employment does not = good insurance anymore. Huge companies, like Walmart, are taking the cheap route and offering no or very poor coverage insurance.
Since having a good job with a good company "use" to = good insurance, and since now companies are getting around that to make more profits, that to me is against our system. Its un American. And if we are to stay based on this job = insurance formula in America, then companies like Walmart should either be forced to comply, or banned from doing business in America.

But since none of that is going to happen, more and more people will just keep having no insurance. Those that do will keep paying more and more. And eventually all companies will stop offering insurance or charge so much that no one will be able to have insurance.

These are the things we pay our leaders, thru taxes,  to protect us and since they are ignoring peoples needs, things are just going to get really bad for everyone.  

The formula has to changed.

[ndrew]

This is a social injustice, one we can face together and change.  Crooked politicians and greedy corporations won't do it unless WE make them.  Do we have a leader in this fight?