Health Premiums, Not Terror Worry Public

[twilight]

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Politicians take note: Americans fret more about losing their health insurance than being a victim of a terrorist attack, according to the results of a poll released on Tuesday.
That's among the findings of the survey showing health care premiums climbing at their highest rate in more than a decade, driven by steeper doctor and hospital fees and health insurers' profit gains.

Monthly premiums for employer-sponsored health care in the United States jumped by 13.9 percent between spring 2002 and 2003, the sharpest spike since 1990, according to a report by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit research group.

"There is no let-up in the rate of increase in health care costs," said foundation president Drew Altman. And employers and consumers feel hopeless about it, he added. "We're stuck without a big answer."

At the same time, the poll found that 33 percent of the insured worry that their income might not keep up with health premiums, while only 8 percent said they fear being a victim of a terrorist attack, the poll found.

Costs paid by workers out of their own pockets for prescription drugs and doctor visits jumped by at least 50 percent in just the last three years, the report found.

more ...

http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/030909/health_premiums_2.html

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Don't know about anyone else out there but my premiums aren't going up next year, but the coverage is dwindling way down. Copayments will be $75.00 for some medications next year, thats right, $75.00! It might almost be cheaper to simply buy them straight off. I am looking into simply discontinuing them! :grr:

[JPace]

1. I think people are ready to vote

for the candidate that promises health
care for everyone. This issue is touching
the lives of every American that is not
wealthy. Even if you are lucky enough to
have good coverage you worry about losing
it and we all have people close to us that
are either not able to get coverage or
the premiums and co-pays are eating up their
incomes.

[Bandit]

12. We did that with Clinton

He promised Health Care and was stymied by the War Party. What makes you think it will be any different this time?

[damnraddem]

14. There are no guarantees, but we can learn from the past.

Some points:
1. Congress will not pass a plan whose every detail has been designed and presented to them. Congress likes to tinker, even a Democratic-majority Congress (which Clinton had in 1992-1993).
2. A super-complex plan will simply not be passed -- KISS.
3. Although a single-payer plan would be simpler than the Clinton plan was, and than the current nonsystem is, such a plan is unlikely to be passed. I personally support single-payer; but I won't hold my breath for it.
4. A movement in support must be built. Harry and Louise spots were nothing compared to the rightwing media monolith that exists today -- a plan needs to be demanded from the streets, not suggested by politicos who think that public opinion will follow them.

Some resources:
1. The January 2003 issue of the 'American Journal of Public Health.'
2. Goldsteen et al., 2001, Harry and Louise and health care reform: romancing public opinion, 'Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law' 26(6): 1325-52.
3. Hacker, 1997, 'The Road to Nowhere,' Princeton University Press.

[VolcanoJen]

16. Conditions are different this time, for one.

Chimpy just proposed an $87 Billion emergency spending bill for our efforts in Iraq. Now that the media has begun to turn on Bush a bit, they've begun printing estimates of the federal budget, showing folks the relative spending required for education, health care, the environment, and other domestic causes.

It's been about 11 years since National Health Care was first proposed, and, especially compared to the $$$ we're wasting in Iraq (even if we win there, who on earth will feel "safer"?), and with rising unemployment and health care costs, I feel this is an idea whose time has truly come.

I, for one, would prefer that my tax dollars support people dying from cancer, rather than people dying from terror attacks. Especially considering that current foreign policy simply cannot prevent deaths from terror attack, but national health care policy could increase the quality and "quantity" of life, here, at home.

[amazona]

2. my premiums close to half my annual income

...and I am in good health! It is out of control. As for medicine, which for some reason is never covered by my HMO, I just have to do without.

The system is broke. People who die for lack of medicine are just as dead as people who die in war or terror. And now I hear they are going to provide free health care to Iraqis?

It just isn't fair.

I am an American. I pay taxes -- a disproportionate share of taxes because I am low income.

The situation is untenable for people in their 40s and 50s who are years away from Medicare. If they expect us all to lay down and just die quietly, I think they are going to be in for a big surprise. If they do not allow for fair voting and peaceful change to a system that provides care and medicine for AMERICAN CITIZENS...then I should not be surprised to see people taking up arms. Sick people with nothing to lose are not going to hold back. It wouldn't make sense. I'm surprised that so many people have taken a death sentence so quietly already. Sooner or later the wrong person is going to be told that his foot is going to be amputated because medicine is too expense (a friend is going through this right now) or that he is going to die because treatment is too expensive and not covered by insurance...

[twilight]

5. the Iraqi people had free health care *sigh*

<And now I hear they are going to provide free health care to Iraqis>

Actually, the Iraqi people had free health care under Saddam Hussein! Being we basically destroyed their country, now we must 'fix it' at our expense, which includes reestablishing the health care system in Iraq! Dare I say we might have been better off just staying the hell out of that situation and taking that same money to FIX America for the American people?

Sorry to hear about your friend - what a disgrace indeed! :grr:

I am on Medicare and have supplemental coverage - the cost is $9,000.00 a year for 2 people which is paid by my former employer in part, but, it eats up a large percentage of what is brought in here and believe me, it isn't very much (poverty level).

We need health care for all Americans and it must be equal for all, not based on wealth!

:dem:

[saigon68]

8. WHAT ABOUT THE INCUBATORS

The occupants of which were dumped on the floor by Sadam's people

</sarcasm>

Remember this propaganda lie from Gulf War #1

Bush the FATHER not his SON the CHIMPANZEE spouted this LIE.

[Nottingham]

3. Health Care in this Nation is in Collapse!

Universal Health is the only answer! :bounce:

[prolesunited]

4. Certainly not having health insurance

is a VERY terrifying prospect. You face the threat of death or bankruptcy if something even halfway serious occurs. And the odds are MUCH greater that you are going to die from inadequate medical care than you are from a terrorist attack.

BTW, in the area of pharmaceuticals, I think we are targeting the wrong thing. It shouldn't be a question of who pays but why prescriptions cost so much in the first place. I think it has been the most profitable private-sector industry for the past several years. Why do the same drugs cost so much in U.S. than it does in other markets? Why does the NIH (our tax dollars) fund so much research and let the drug companies keep all of the profits? Why is so much money spent on marketing over research since the advent of allowing advertising to the public? What are the implications of vaccine shortages because so much emphasis is placed on manufacturing high-end drugs?

There are so many bigger issues getting the short shrift over the focus on who pays for coverage.

[PAMod]

6. Universal Healthcare takes healthcare worries off the table

Can you imagine if you didn't have to worry about health insurance? If you could take a job because it is work you WANT to do, not just because the job has health benefits?

How many people are trapped in jobs that they no longer want, just to keep the benny's? How many people are trapped on welfare because getting work will end the health benny's?

When will the people wake up?

I think it is happening now.

I'm not convinced what the solution is, but I think we're getting close.

[twilight]

9. excellent point(s)!

If I did not have to worry about my health insurance, a whole new world would open up to me! I wouldn't be TRAPPED in this Medicare/supplemental policy thing. Perhaps I could even find a way to get away from all of it!

Hell, since I've been offline, I just called a doctor in Pennsylvania to try to get an RX for a drug that costs about $5.00 to make that MIGHT HELP the condition I have that has NO risks! I wonder what the 'phone consult' will cost me? I am sure the "insurance" sure as hell won't pay for it!!!

:grr: again ...

We all want to live and be well! That is how we can live our lives to their optimal benefit for every person! :D

[kutastha]

7. No doubt

People are more likely to get ill than to suffer a terrorist attack. But even if you do survive a terrorist attack, what if you can't pay for coverage?

* and his administration's "Booga booga booga" routine ain't going to make sick people well. It just exacerbates gastrointestinal disorders.

[sventvkg]

10. The GOP is SO DONE in 2004! But I don't think Any Democrat can do this

I just don't think any democrat can get Healthcare reform passed and a universal system..the Good Ol boy system of Big corporate lobby for the Pharmacutical industry will never let it happen without an unprecidented fight!! It's just not in their best interest and our Government is too overrun with special interest loyalty to force a pardigm change at the present time...Need to vote most of these bastards out, and start fresh with people who will DO WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT DONE!!! Take care of our Citizens first!!!!! FUCK IRAQ and all the lies and Fuck these bastards who only exist to PAD their and their corporate elite friends' pockets.......I'm just plain sick of it...Oh, I have NEVER Had Health insurance in my life being self employed I could never afford it...I'm 32 and I do need it now...:9

[twilight]

11. pharmaceutical industry - the key to the trap!

You hit the nail on the head. Do we REALLY want a M.D. as the pResident of the United States of America? THINK ABOUT IT!

As a disabled person who has been the route, seen the talk and walked the trap ... GOD DAMN THEM! Most of the richies are nothing but shills for the freakin pharmaceutical industry.

Why would I be calling a doctor in Pennsylvania (I am in CA) to get an RX for a cheap drug when the local 'specialist' knows but two words, the name of the drug he just happens to have been in on the pilot studies for! GOD DAMN HIM!

THROW OUT ALL OF THESE OLD BOYS!

You need health care now? Just wait ... add a few more years to your life and find out how unreal it can become.

If we can set it up in Iraq we can set it up here! We need to conquer the shills and cancel the Haliburtons! To HELL with them!

:dem:

[BiggJawn]

19. Evan Bayh's no Doctor, nor doess he play one on TV...

But he gets enough campaign "SPEECH" from the Pharmaceutical "people" to make sure you (and me) keep paying through the pee-pee for our meds...

Would Dean be any worse? Who knows? I don't and neither do you.

At least he's not an alleged Vivisectionist like Frist.

[damnraddem]

13. Well, at least on this pairing of issues, the American people ...

are quite-well oriented to reality. Losing one's health insurance is definitely the bigger risk.

[spinbaby]

15. Wall Street Journal today...

No link but the front of the Wall Street Journal today had an article about how employers are starting to cut health-care costs by dumping spouses from policies.

[dbt]

17. This could have already been fixed.

But it was so EVIL of the Clintons to put a woman in charge of finding a solution and to try to have closed-door meetings on the subject. It simply could not be allowed to continue!

Yet Cheney gets COMPLETELY away with having closed-door meetings at which FUCKING ENRON gets to write national energy policy!

Thank God we got rid of the Clintons. Thank GOD our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is over!!

:freak:
dbt

[peterh]

18. What ever happen to the plan put forth by the state of Maine?

I know it got voted down by the House, but haven’t heard whether the Senate voted on it yet.

[bleedingheart]

20. its all about the pocketbook in the end...

* can strut around like the goofball on an aircraft carrier but when people don't have enough money to pay for healthcare...or they aren't as well off...well...its payback time for the repukes.

[peterh]

21. This is a couple of years old…

But it could provide a foundation to start with for a candidate that really wants to get the voters attention.


A Progressive Path Toward Universal Health Coverage

<http://www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=111&subsecID=137&contentID=2813>