Health Care Hustle's Casualties (TomPaine.com)

[marmar]

Health Care Hustle's Casualties
Tula Connell
March 23, 2007


Tula Connell is managing editor at the AFL-CIO.

Think you know how bad the nation's health care system is? Think again.

This week, the 1.5 million-member, AFL-CIO community affiliate Working America launched “In the Heart of the Health Care Hustle ,” an interactive online project to gather stories from America’s workers, and channel their outrage into action. Before the site even went public March 21, more than 200 people had posted their stories. Hundreds more have come in since then. Some describe their struggles to unravel the insurance industry’s bureaucratic red tape and still get the health care they seek. Some tell how they are forced to stay in jobs they can’t stand so they won’t lose their health care. And many, like this woman from Washington State, wonder what’s to become of us in this nation.

I just recently turned 62. I have never been sickly until lately....I have no health insurance at all and I don't have a clue as to how I am going to get all these bills paid. I have checked in on health insurance but it is so terribly high we can't afford it....My husband will be 70 years old this year and still has to work for us to make ends meet at all. What are Americans to do?

These stories make clear the nation’s health care catastrophe isn’t just about low-income people struggling to make ends meet. The crisis has hit the heart of the middle class. More than one-third of those without health insurance—17 million of the nearly 47 million—have family incomes of $40,000 or more, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute , a nonpartisan organization. More than two-thirds of the uninsured are in households with at least one full-time worker. ....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/03/23/health_care_hustles_casualties.php

[papau]

1. All good points - no single payer care means job search is crippled - and that hits

life style/income of the middle class.

This is not about the poor or about the uninsured.