In the Fight�| 05.07.04
Insuring America
Background:
May 10 - 16 is Cover the Uninsured Week, a
national campaign to focus attention on the nearly 44 million
Americans, 8.5 million of whom are children, who lack health care
coverage. Cover the Uninsured Week seeks to encourage discussion
and action on the issue of the uninsured nationally and locally,
to educate Americans about the growing uninsured crisis and to
provide immediate assistance to the uninsured. It also offers an
important opportunity to challenge public policy initiatives that
have failed millions of Americans.
Lacking health care coverage has serious health consequences. The Kaiser Family Foundation, reports that in 2002, 40 percent of adults that did not have health insurance delayed getting needed care and 28 percent went without necessary care in the past year.
In her testimony to the U.S. House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, Diane Rowland, Executive Vice President and Executive Director of the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured reported that the uninsured are primarily low-income working families.� Eight in ten of the uninsured come from working families who do not receive health care coverage from their employer and cannot afford to purchase coverage.
The
Fight: The Recession and the Uninsured
The significant downturn in the
economy coupled with escalating health care costs is pulling more people in to the ranks of the
uninsured. In 2002 alone, two million more Americans found themselves lacking
health coverage, the largest increase in a single year in over a
decade.
The
Bush Solution?
In President Bush's fiscal year 2005 budget, he proposed a $1,000
tax credit for individuals and $3,000 tax credit for families to
purchase health insurance. Given the rising costs of coverage in
the individual health insurance market, many low to moderate
income families would still not be able to afford heath care
coverage. The Center for Budget and Policy
Priorities notes that high health insurance premiums for low
and moderate income households, even with a tax credit, compete
with other necessities such as rent or mortgage and food.
The Safety Net: Full of Holes
While Medicaid and the State
Children's Health Assistance Program (SCHIP) provide quality
basic health care for some low-income people, particularly
children, seniors, and those with disabilities, 14 million
low-income adults do not qualify for public health care
insurance. In 36 states, parents with income levels below the
poverty line are not eligible for public health insurance. In 42
states, adults without children cannot obtain Medicaid unless
they are severely disabled.
- Working without a Net: The Health Care Safety Net Still Leaves Millions of Low-Income Workers Uninsured, Families USA*
Not Just a Problem for the Uninsured
Even those with employer-based health insurance are not immune
from health care problems. Rising costs in health care premiums
have resulted in employers shifting more of the responsibility to
cover health care coverage to employees. As the cost of health
care insurance increases, coverage is declining. Over 3 million have lost
employer provided health care coverage since the peak of the
economic boom in the 1990s.
Medicare Drug Card Falls Short
Recently, the Department of Health and Human Services began
offering the Medicare
Prescription Drug Discount Card as part of the Medicare reform
law that was signed into law in 2003. Instead of the savings
promised to seniors, many will find that they are actually not
saving or spending more on prescription drugs by
using the drug card. Families USA created a chart comparing the prices
seniors would pay for drugs using the Medicare discount card, on
Drugstore.com, through the government of Canada, and through the
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. In addition, seniors are not
allowed to change the discount card they choose but discount card
providers can decide to change the drugs they cover and the
amount they will cover as often as they like.
- Medicare Drug Cards A Sham, Center for American Progress
- Medicare Discount Card Fail to Make Drug Costs Affordable for Seniors, Families USA*
- An Rx for Medicare, Moving Ideas Network
Who Is Fighting:
- Alliance for Retired Americans
- Campaign for America's Future*
- Center for American Progress
- Center on Budget and Policy Priorities*
- Center for Economic and Policy Research*
- Families USA*
- Kaiser Family Foundation
- National Council of La Raza
- National Health Law Program*
- Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
- USAction
- Write a letter to the editor to your local newspaper. The Cover the Uninsured Week provides a good "hook," making your letter timely and more likely to get published. You can use the research in this "In the Fight" to compose your letter. If your letter gets published, let us know at [email protected].
- Participate in the Families USA Medicare Road Show, a�public awareness campaign to educate seniors�about the new Medicare prescription drug law.
- Send a message to your members of Congress urging them to take back the $46 billion taxpayers dollars that HMOs will get as a result of the Medicare prescription drug debacle.
- Learn about other things you can do during Cover the Uninsured Week.
Research, Articles, Fact Sheets:
- Administration's Proposed Tax Credit for the Purchase of Health Insurance Could Weaken Employer-Based Health Insurance, Center for Budget and Policy Priorities*
- Working without a Net: The Health Care Safety Net Still Leaves Millions of Low-Income Workers Uninsured, Families USA*
- The Uninsured and Their Access to Healthcare, Kaiser Commission on the Uninsured and Medicaid
- Characteristics of the Uninsured: A View from the States, Prepared for The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation by the States Health Access Data Assistance Center, University of Minnesota
- Fact Sheets about the Uninsured, Cover the Uninsured Week
- Undoing the Damage: Medicare Policy Series, Center for American Progress
Posted by P6 at May 14, 2004 09:17 PM
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