Why do I think we need universal health insurance? Simple, insurance has been an escalating problem for Cheryl and me for the past 10 years and we consider ourselves lucky; we have insurance. I remember the days when my Dad had health insurance with BlueCross BlueShield and it was 100% paid by his employer. Most of the companies he worked for were small. They were auto parts stores where there were eight to 10 employees. In the olden days, the 50’s through the 70’s, it seems like everyone who had a job had health insurance and the employer paid.
The latest census data shows that the percentage of people in the United States without insurance has increased from 13% in 1987 to 16% in 2006. That doesn’t sound like much of an increase but it’s a number that’s been growing for a long time and my sense is that if something doesn’t change the number will grow every year. By the way, that’s 47 million people without insurance. A Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report titled How Many People Lack Health Insurance and For How Long? published in 2003 stated that “75 percent of the uninsured in working families do not have access to insurance through their employer” and “the other 25 percent have access to employment based insurance but do not accept it.”
I can’t imagine being without health insurance. It has happened to Cheryl and me only twice in our lives together and both times Cheryl was pregnant and within weeks of delivering when we found ourselves uninsured. Fortunately there were no complications with the deliveries and the cost wasn’t prohibitive. How things have changed. I wouldn’t want to be without insurance today and have my wife in her ninth month. Based on the number of people without insurance, you can safely assume that many families are facing that dilemma. For many citizens of the United States of America, that is their reality while most of rest of the western world has provided a system to avoid those circumstances.
According to the CBO report referenced above, “The high cost of insurance and lack of access to employment based coverage are the two most commonly reported reasons for being uninsured.” From my experience, both of those reasons for being uninsured are for the same reason, the high cost of insurance. Except for the period of September 2006 to August 2007, Cheryl and I have been self insured since 1997. We’re experts on the cost. Tomorrow I’ll describe the “high cost of insurance.”
The latest census data shows that the percentage of people in the United States without insurance has increased from 13% in 1987 to 16% in 2006. That doesn’t sound like much of an increase but it’s a number that’s been growing for a long time and my sense is that if something doesn’t change the number will grow every year. By the way, that’s 47 million people without insurance. A Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report titled How Many People Lack Health Insurance and For How Long? published in 2003 stated that “75 percent of the uninsured in working families do not have access to insurance through their employer” and “the other 25 percent have access to employment based insurance but do not accept it.”
I can’t imagine being without health insurance. It has happened to Cheryl and me only twice in our lives together and both times Cheryl was pregnant and within weeks of delivering when we found ourselves uninsured. Fortunately there were no complications with the deliveries and the cost wasn’t prohibitive. How things have changed. I wouldn’t want to be without insurance today and have my wife in her ninth month. Based on the number of people without insurance, you can safely assume that many families are facing that dilemma. For many citizens of the United States of America, that is their reality while most of rest of the western world has provided a system to avoid those circumstances.
According to the CBO report referenced above, “The high cost of insurance and lack of access to employment based coverage are the two most commonly reported reasons for being uninsured.” From my experience, both of those reasons for being uninsured are for the same reason, the high cost of insurance. Except for the period of September 2006 to August 2007, Cheryl and I have been self insured since 1997. We’re experts on the cost. Tomorrow I’ll describe the “high cost of insurance.”
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