Health Insurance Reform Cannot Wait!
“I suffer no illusions that this will be an easy process. It will be hard. But I also know that nearly a century after Teddy Roosevelt first called for reform, the cost of our health care has weighed down our economy and the conscience of our nation long enough. So let there be no doubt: health care reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year.”
President Barack Obama, February 24, 2009
America spends 2.3 trillion dollars a year on health care, $1.1 trillion is public spending and $1.2 trillion is private spending. Per capita we spend $6714 while Germany spends $3371, Japan spends $2578, and Canada spends $3678. The United States will soon be spending 20% of its entire GDP on health care and medicare may go bankrupt in less than 10 years.
All this spending has not led to better quality care.
- A recently released study by the OECD placed the United States in 19th place out of 19 industrialized countries in delivering timely and effective health care that reduces preventable deaths. The United States was found to have about 110 preventable deaths per 100,000 patients. For comparison, Germany had 90, Japan had 71, and Canada had 77 per 100,000 patients.
- 100,000 Americans die each year from infections acquired in hospitals
- 1.5 million Americans are injured by medication errors each year
- CIA World Fact Book ranks the United States in 50th place for life expectancy.
- The CDC ranks the United States 29th in preventing infant mortality
The exploding cost of health care is crippling our economy and making our businesses less competitive. Working familes are bearing the cost more and more or going without coverage.
- From 1999-2008 health care premiums have risen an average of 119% for family coverage. The average family cost was $5791 in 1999 with the employer picking up $4247 and the worker picking up $1543 of that cost. In 2007, that cost rose to $12,680, with the employer picking up on average $9325 and the worker picking up $3354.
- Starbucks and General Motors now spend more money on health care than they do on coffee beans and steel respectively.
- Over 62% of all personal bankruptcies are due to medical bills, an increase of 50% since 2001, and most of those filing have insurance.
So, we spend much more than other countries, cannot demonstrate superior quality, and on top of that do something that other industrialized countries do not do: leave a large segment of our citizens — 47 million — uninsured.
Unite Here Local 5 believes that health care should be a right and not a privilege. Health insurance reform is not just a moral neccessity, but an economic necessity. Let’s get it done this year!