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Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jane4IceCream who wrote (162263)	9/29/2009 1:36:40 PM
From: Skywatcher	Respond to of 173976

tampabay.com An insurance failure Published Monday, September 28, 2009 Each day that Gary Stein works, $18 of his pay goes toward the premium for his employee-sponsored health insurance. But neither insurance, nor a steady job, has been enough to keep his family from financial ruin in the face of a mounting co-payments for his wife's and two daughters' medical care for a genetic disorder. Nor has a second mortgage, a cashed-out life insurance policy and even foreclosure. Put simply, the Wesley Chapel family can't afford the status quo in health care. Neither can millions of other Americans. Stein's story, told Monday in the St. Petersburg Times, is a reminder that there is much more at stake in health care reform than covering the uninsured or protecting the benefits of Medicare recipients. Working Americans also must have access to affordable health insurance, and it must be robust enough so that families who face extraordinary medical needs don't end up financially devastated. The current system fails on both counts, underscoring why Congress and President Barack Obama must keep working. Health insurance costs for employer-sponsored plans — the backbone of the private system — have skyrocketed 131 percent in the past 10 years, far more than workers' wages (38 percent) or inflation (28 percent), according to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust. The average cost for family coverage is $13,375, compared to $5,791 a decade ago. And costs are expected to increase 9 to 10 percent next year. Even as the costs have soared for businesses and their employees, health insurance is covering less. High deductibles, stiffer co-pays and cost-sharing all make it harder for families like Stein's when medical bills come due. Such facts help explain why, despite a summer of vitriolic debate, a recent New York Times/CBS News poll found only 23 percent of Americans are firmly opposed to health care reform. Thirty percent support it, and 46 percent say they don't know enough to commit to a position. Working Americans' private insurance may also have a lifetime limit on benefits or a co-pay structure that will bankrupt them if they ever need catastrophic care due to an accident or a bout with cancer. And that's assuming they don't lose their job or their employer doesn't cut their insurance plan. Then, even if they have the means, they may have trouble finding coverage in the private market if they or any member of their family have any sort of pre-existing condition. A recent study by the U.S. Treasury Department provides even more evidence of how broken the system is for working adults. Nearly half of adults under 65 went uninsured at some point between 1997 and 2006, a period when health insurance was cheaper relative to wages. A lapse in coverage affected 45 percent of households making between $50,000 and $100,000 a year — showing the problem is hitting the solidly middle class, not just those of lesser economic means. Health care reform isn't just about the uninsured or the elderly. It's about the fact that working Americans and their employers, despite paying more for health insurance, have seen their coverage significantly diminish. Such a route has already financially devastated many hard-working Americans such as the Stein family. Without reform, it will bankrupt the whole country.