I just submitted this editorial to the Houston Chronicle. I hope they print it.
America is in the midst of a national health care crisis. Costs are skyrocketing and employees' health insurance policies are soaring out of reach for many employers even as health insurance coverage plummets. In Texas alone, one in four of our neighbors lacks health care insurance. And the uninsured, who rely on emergency rooms for medical treatment, drive up everyone else's health care costs.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation Health Benefits 2004 survey, job-based health insurance premiums rose an average of 11.2 percent this past year. That increase represents more than four times the 2.3 percent overall growth in inflation. Since 2000, health insurance premiums nationally have increased 59 percent, and in Texas, the share of health care premiums shouldered by employees is now 60.8 percent higher than it was when the decade began.
General Motors is facing a $1 billion increase in medical costs this year. It foots the bill for 1.1 million workers, retirees and family members, which ate a $5.8 billion hole in the company's profits last year. The automaker expects the tab to approach $7 billion this year, severely cutting into its bottom line. GM's healthcare burden is one reason it faces a possible downgrade of its credit rating to junk bond status -- an embarrassing prospect for the world's largest automaker)
During the 2004 elections, the biggest domestic issue was the "Healthcare Crisis" facing Americans. Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent by all of the candidates of both parties to promote their "cure." President Bush advocated tax credits for health care accounts. Senator Kerry's plan called for helping business with their catastrophic claims. Each of the candidates recognized that there was a need to fix this problem.
After the election... utter silence. Not a peep out of the President, the Senate, or the House. Republicans and Democrats alike, mum. Our elected leaders in Washington have found time for a bankruptcy overhaul bill, drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, investigating steroid use in baseball, and months of wrangling over a phantom Social Security crisis.
In the mean time, Americans are facing higher and higher insurance premiums that harm employees as well as small businesses. Even large corporations are beginning to call our leaders to action. The consensus is clear: No child or senior should ever go without health care, working men and women must be able to afford decent health insurance packages, and small businesses must be able to offer health care coverage for their employees.
All Americans deserve quality, affordable health care, and we as a nation should be committed to both expanding access to healthcare and increasing health insurance coverage rates. Our elected officials in Washington should be fighting for policies and programs that make health care accessible and affordable to all Americans.
First, we should offer tax credits to individuals and businesses to make quality, reliable health coverage more affordable. Providing a tax credit to help small businesses offer health coverage to their employees could significantly increase coverage rates because more than 60 percent of uninsured workers are employed by a small business. Next, we should increase enrollment of eligible children in the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Then, let's increase health insurance coverage for low-income adults by expanding eligibility for Medicaid and allowing older Americans who have lost health insurance coverage because they lost their jobs or whose employers have dropped their retiree health benefits to buy into Medicare. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the time is ripe to establish a guaranty fund that would help families, businesses, and the self-employed cover payments for large medical claims by having the federal government bear some of the cost of catastrophic claims. This would cut insurance premiums sharply.
Americans, our people and our industry, are at a severe disadvantage in terms of health care cost because in Japan and Europe, those cost are socialized. Because of these huge healthcare costs America cannot compete on a level global playing field. We should remind our elected leaders in Washington that the real crisis is still healthcare -- and that this issue must be addressed now if America wants to compete in the future.