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It is too bad President Obama did not take the side of nurses and health care practitioners and use his White House megaphone to highlight how a single payer, national health plan would create millions of jobs and spur hundreds of billions in new business and public revenues. It would provide health care to all without adding costs.
There is no question the U.S. must confront the economic costs of health care. The United States spends more than $2 trillion on health care every year, more than 18% of the GDP. By 2040, 34 cents of every dollar will be spent on healthcare. The U.S. spends twice as much per person on health care than countries with single payer systems. For this exorbitant price we get worse results in terms of access to health care and such measures as longevity and infant mortality. Indeed, according to the National Academy of Sciences approximately 20,000 die annually in the U.S. due to lack of health care.
This cost of health care is unaffordable at all levels of government. State and federal governments are unable to balance budgets with health care costs rising. Medicare and Medicaid are struggling because of these costs.
And, families struggle whether they have insurance or not. The Kaiser Family Foundation found that employer-sponsored health insurance premiums have more than doubled in the last nine years, a rate four times faster than wage increases. The McKinsey Global Institute found that 78% of low wage workers do not receive health benefits from their employers. Moreover, families in the lowest income category spend 20% of household income on contributions to employer-sponsored health plan premiums. According to a study in the August issue of the American Journal of Medicine, medical problems contributed to nearly two-thirds (62.1%) of all bankruptcies and more than three-quarters (77.9%) of those had insurance.
These financial challenges for government and individuals are occurring while the health insurance industry feeds its gluttonous greed. Profits at 10 of the country's largest publicly traded health insurance companies rose 428% from 2000 to 2007, from $2.4 billion to $12.9 billion, according to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings. In 2007 alone, the chief executive officers at these 10 companies collected combined total compensation of $118.6 million an average of $11.9 million each. That is 468 times more than the $25,434 an average American worker made that year.
The health care bills being considered by the Congress will be a gigantic giveaway to the health insurance industry. They will mandate that people or employers purchase health insurance. With nearly 50 million uninsured, and the numbers rising with every new report of job losses, this will be a tremend
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