Health Care Crisis
Wal-Mart worker Larry Allen has chronic liver disease and high blood pressure. He can’t afford Wal-Mart’s health plan. Now he’s facing a $13,200 medical bill after spending five days in the hospital.
When Stan Fortune, a former Wal-Mart manager, talked to his regional personnel manager about providing good health care coverage for Wal-Mart employees, the regional manager told him it was too expensive for the company. Asked who would take care of the workers, he replied, "Let the states do it."
More than 3,500 working families lose health care coverage every day. No wonder the number one concern for people is the rising cost of health care—exceeding worries about jobs and terrorism—according to a Kaiser Family Foundation study. Americans are worried about whether they can afford health care coverage. They’re worried because 80 percent of those without insurance are from working families, who just can’t afford the cost of coverage. As health care costs continue to escalate, more and more working people are finding they have to choose between paying rent or insurance premiums—that’s a choice working families should never have to make.
Failed Bush Economic Policy Fuels Health Care Crisis
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Become a Health Care Voter The health care crisis is a national crisis and demands a national solution. To make that happen working people must mobilize to support only candidates who have a health care plan that will provide affordable care. We can win coverage everyone can count on if we mobilize and get involved. To learn how you can get involved, click here. |
Two main factors are creating the crisis in the U.S. health care system: failed Bush Administration economic and health care policies and corporate free loaders, like Wal-Mart, that shift the cost of employee health care coverage onto taxpayers and responsible corporate citizens
White House tax giveaways for the wealthy are worsening the health care crisis and taking a severe toll on working people. The billions necessary to pay for the Bush tax breaks have turned record national surpluses into a record deficit while racking up unprecedented unemployment rates. Nearly 3 million private sector jobs have been lost, driving up the number of people without health insurance. Factory orders are down, manufacturing is down, and retailers are predicting that sales this year will grow at the slowest pace in a decade.
The Bush Administration proposal to establish "Association Health Plans" as a way to provide more access to health care coverage is really a plan to benefit big insurance companies while covering very few people. Just 330,000 people nationwide would be covered through Bush's health care plan, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That's just 0.8 percent of the 41.2 million Americans without health insurance. The nation's governors oppose Bush's plan because provisions in the plan would exempt the insurance companies from laws that protect patients.
Corporate Freeloaders Drive Up Health Care Costs
Wal-Mart and other irresponsible employers who game the health care system are creating the worst budget crises hitting states since the Great Depression. Here’s how the gaming works: companies like Wal-Mart make it difficult for employees to qualify for health care coverage and for those who do qualify the cost is unaffordable. At Wal-Mart this results in nearly 700,000 employees who don’t participate in the company plan. That means taxpayers and other companies are paying Wal-Mart’s health insurance bills. Other companies get tired of paying the bill for Wal-Mart. So they drop or reduce health care benefits. In turn, this increases the number of uninsured, increases the numbers of people who seek hospital emergency room treatment, and drives of health care costs for taxpayers.
Wal-Mart and other companies who take the approach to "let the states" take care of workers without insurance resulted in $35 billion worth of unpaid care in 2001. Taxpayers ended up paying $29 billion to cover that bill and the price on the 2002 bill will be even higher.
Employers who don’t provide workers affordable health care coverage not only pass the buck to taxpayers, they’re running a double con game on responsible companies that do provide coverage. On one hand, when the uninsured have spouses with company coverage, they sign on, driving up the responsible company’s premium costs. On the other, by saving on insurance costs, irresponsible employers establish an unfair competitive advantage.
• U.S. Health Care Vital Statistics
• Curing America's Health Care Crisis
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Current Issue Archives |
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America's Health Care Crisis |
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Don't Families Deserve Better? |
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Justice @ Smithfield |
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Retail Food Bargaining |
