Hurricane Health Care

Healthcare swept away
By Derrick Z. Jackson, Boston Globe, September 21, 2005

. . .With the exception of 1999 and 2000, the number of Americans without health insurance has risen steadily from just over 30 million in 1987. It is a bipartisan failure. After President Clinton dropped his botched attempt for a more universal form of healthcare in his first term, the numbers of the uninsured soared from 35 million to nearly 45 million. Aided by a booming economy, the numbers fell in Clinton's last two years to 40 million. Under Bush, the number cracked the 45 million barrier for the first time -- 45.8 million, to be exact.

Last week, as Bush conducted damage control over the negligent federal response to Katrina, the Kaiser Family Foundation released a report indicating that healthcare premiums continue to increase at triple the rate of inflation. The average cost of family health coverage is now $10,880, surpassing the gross earnings of someone working full time at the federal minimum wage.

In the Bush years, the cost of health insurance has skyrocketed by 73 percent. While Bush has given vastly disproportionate shares of his tax cuts to corporations and wealthy individuals under the guise that the rich will create jobs, not only has there been no rise in income for the average American; business firms, especially small ones, are cutting workers out of healthcare. Since Bush took office, the percentage of companies that offer health insurance has dropped from 69 percent to 60 percent.

Healthcare spending in the United States is expected to grow from $1.4 trillion last year to $3.1 trillion a year by 2012. Yet virtually nothing on a large scale has been done about it, with insurance companies, drug companies, and major medical associations lobbying forcefully on Capitol Hill and in state legislatures against cost controls and single-payer coverage. The travesty of the hospitals in New Orleans is only a prelude to the disaster that is about to strike healthcare in America.

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''Every year, health insurance becomes less affordable to working people."

Fewer companies offering health benefits as costs rise
Premiums growing at 3 times rate of pay
By Jeffrey Krasner, Boston Globe Staff September 15, 2005

As health insurance costs continue to spiral upward, fewer companies are offering health benefits to their employees, according to a national survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

About 60 percent of companies nationwide offer health benefits to employees, compared to 69 percent in 2000, the survey found. Most of the companies that eliminated health benefits have fewer than 200 employees.

''It is low-wage workers who are being hurt the most by the steady drip, drip, drip of coverage draining out of the employer-based health insurance system," said Drew E. Altman, president of the foundation, a nonprofit that provides information and analysis of healthcare issues but does not take sides in policy debates. ''Every year, health insurance becomes less affordable to working people."

The annual survey underscored the ongoing increases in healthcare costs. It estimated insurance premiums rose this year by an average of 9.2 percent nationwide, compared to 11.2 percent last year and 13.9 percent in 2003. But Altman warned against reading too much into this year's lower number.

''Don't be fooled by the moderation in the rate of increase," he said. ''We've seen these dips before."

The survey said premium costs are rising at about three times the rate of increase of the average worker's earnings and at about two-and-a-half times the rate of inflation.

''We shouldn't expect anything other than for the rate of health premiums to greatly outpace the growth of wages and the growth of the general economy," Altman said.

Increases in Massachusetts have exceeded the national average. This year, most health plan members faced jumps of 10 to 13 percent, and the state's major health insurers are predicting increases of 10 to 12 percent next year for many customers.

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Health Care's Potholes

Health care's potholes
By David Lazarus, San Francisco Chronicle, Friday, September 2, 2005

Just about everyone has a tale of woe that illustrates why the U.S. health care system is in such miserable shape. Duane Vickrey's story is particularly illuminating.

It also gets to the heart of a problem many other people face: soaring insurance costs for the most mundane of medical conditions.

"Unless you can show you have a pristine state of health -- found more in theory than in nature -- they'll find a way to jack up your premiums," said Kevin Grumbach, who heads the Department of Family and Community Medicine at UCSF Medical School.

Vickrey, 41, graduated from UC Berkeley in May with a master's degree in social welfare. While attending classes, he was covered by a Blue Cross insurance plan available to students. He didn't step right into full-time work once he left school, so Vickrey decided to maintain his Blue Cross coverage under an individual policy.

He's not alone. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 16 million Americans are covered by individual health insurance policies, as opposed to company-sponsored plans.Vickrey decided on a plan that cost a manageable $86 a month in premiums but that also came with a deductible of $3,500.

In other words, he's responsible for the first $3,500 in annual health care costs, making the plan primarily a hedge against catastrophic medical troubles. Luckily, Vickrey has no serious health issues. Or so he thought.

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Insured not immune

Even the insured can buckle under health care costs
Some make ends meet by forgoing treatment
By Julie Apple, USA TODAY, August 31, 2005

Medical progress has helped Americans live longer, but the exploding cost of those breakthroughs has polarized the nation: More than one in four Americans are faltering under the burden of health costs, while almost half — those lucky enough to be healthy or wealthy — are untouched.

The rest are a mix of those who say they worry about whether they will be able to pay routine medical bills in the future and those who have already started cutting corners — skipping treatments or not taking prescriptions — because of the costs.

Other findings from a nationwide survey of adults by USA TODAY, the Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard School of Public Health show that medical inflation is creating financial problems even for those who most assume should be able to handle the costs — those with health insurance.

Sixty-two percent of those struggling to pay medical bills have health insurance, underscoring how increasing premiums, deductibles and gaps in coverage are affecting families.

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