(The following op-ed of mine on the U.S. health care crisis appeared today in the Charleston (WV) Sunday Gazette-Mail. There is some state-specific information in it, but most of it deals with the need for a national response.)
It looks like the national debate on health care is heating up again — and not a moment too soon.
According to recent Census data, 46.6 million Americans lack health coverage, a number that has increased each year since 2000. Kathleen Stoll of Families USA noted that "The huge number of uninsured Americans now exceeds the cumulative population of 24 states plus the District of Columbia."
The Associated Press reported in January that 322,000 West Virginians lack health coverage. That’s a little more than one out of every six state residents. Most of these are working-age adults.
To put it another way, the number of West Virginians without health care is now about the same as the combined populations of Barbour, Boone, Braxton, Calhoun, Clay, Doddridge, Gilmer, Grant, Hardy, Jackson, Lewis, Lincoln, McDowell, Mason, Mingo, Monroe, Morgan, Pleasants, Pocahontas, Preston and Ritchie counties.
That’s a lot of good people.
In Dec. 2006, the Associated Press reported: "According to the most recent Census figures, about 88,000 West Virginians have lost their health insurance since 2000."
That’s about the same as the combined population of Fayette and Wayne counties.
And the Institute of Medicine estimates that each year around 18,000 Americans die prematurely every year because they lack heath coverage.
You get the idea.
One indication that things are bad is that some groups who don’t usually agree (and sometimes fight like cats and dogs) are joining together to call for bold action.
Last year, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) joined with AARP and the Business Roundtable to urge the government to act. That’s old news. The latest twist was the formation of a new alliance of not only unions such as SEIU and the Communications Workers of America but also companies such as AT&T, Kelly Services, Inc. and traditional union adversary and retail giant Wal-Mart.
This partnership is especially interesting as SEIU is a very active partner in Wal-Mart Watch, a group that was formed to change that company’s behavior.
I won’t try to analyze motives here. Let’s just say that any time groups like this agree that we have a problem here, we probably have a problem here.
Here’s a sample from their statement of principles: "America’s health care system is broken. The traditional employer-based model of coverage is endangered without substantial reform of our health care system. It is being crushed by out of control costs, the pressures of the global economy, and the large and growing number of the uninsured. ... We can only solve these problems — and deliver health care that is high quality, affordable, accessible and secure — if business, government, labor, the health care delivery system and the nonprofit sector work together."
Worshippers of the market god, take note. Big voices in the private sector are saying this problem is too big for the private sector.
In another recent example, the New York Times reported late last month that the Federation of American Hospitals, which represents for-profit hospitals, outlined its plan to provide health care for all. Among other things, the association calls for dramatically expanding public programs such Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program and providing subsidies based on income for "uninsured workers who have access to an employer plan but have not signed up because of the cost."
In fact, it’s not all that strange after all that businesses and health care providers are starting to get on board and call for universal health care. U.S. manufacturers that provide health insurance for workers are at a disadvantage in competing with firms based in countries where everyone is covered. The Times reports that "Together, the nation’s for-profit and non-profit hospitals strain under the burden of $40 billion a year in unpaid bills, most of them generated by people without insurance."
And there are more reasons why health care for all makes good business sense. Business Week noted in its Jan. 29 issue that lack of universal health care traps workers in jobs they dislike and keeps them from contributing as much as they might to a healthy economy. The term for that is "job lock."
The article, appropriately titled "Held Hostage by Health Care," cites Kelly Services Chief Executive Carl T. Camden among those calling for a major health care fix: "Workers, he says, are increasingly shackled to their jobs for no reason other than to cling to their employer’s health insurance coverage. These are people, he says, ‘who don’t leave a job even though they’re unhappy and would be more productive somewhere else.’"
Establishing a guarantee of health care for all would probably do more than any single measure to promote competitiveness, entrepreneurship and innovation.
It also enjoys strong support among the American people. According to the latest CBS News/Times poll, 64 percent of Americans think the government should guarantee health care for all, with only 27 percent opposed.
The Bush administration’s proposals — cutting Medicare, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and Medicaid; taxing workers with good insurance on their benefits; and pushing health savings accounts (which would make health care like car insurance and sick people like drivers with DUIs) are counter-productive.
This is a time to start thinking boldly about real solutions. The country needs it and the people deserve it.
(For more, check the daily Goat Rope, a social and economic justice blog with gratuitous animal pictures and the occasional talking animal.)