Capitol Hill hears tales of our broken health-care system

Catherine Howard, a 31-year old breast cancer survivor from San Francisco, is headed to Capitol Hill today to urge lawmakers to pass health-care reform. So is Dave Penkava, a 64-year old from Asheboro, N.C. They’re among 31 people from across the country who have come to Washington, D.C., to add their voices to the intensifying health care debate.

"It’s important to remember there are real lives and families behind all the statistics and data that point to the need for reform," said Jim Guest, Consumers Union’s President, who will accompany the group on their rounds of lawmakers’ offices.

Indeed, their stories mirror those of millions of Americans. Catherine is more than $30,000 in debt because the health insurance she purchased didn’t cover large portions of her treatments, medicines, and hospitalizations. She has good coverage now, but her medical debt is a huge financial burden and she struggles to make ends meet.

Dave retired a few years back, but when the premium for his retiree health plan jumped from $126 a month to $1,000 a month he had to take a full-time job to get affordable coverage for him and his wife. He’ll have to work until age 69 until his wife qualifies for Medicare.

Catherine and Dave’s visit to the Capitol coincides with the release of an important new report from the Commonwealth Fund, an independent research group. The report finds that a number of the reform options currently being discussed would move toward a more patient-centered health care system, providing access and affordability to millions of Americans. The report supports a new form of health coverage via a national health insurance exchange where Americans would choose from competing plans, comparing on an "apples to apples" basis, and picking the one that works best for them.

The report will be released today at an event co-hosted by Consumers Union. The Commonwealth analysis also includes the option of a "public" plan—one of the most contentious issues in the reform debate. And we agree with their analysis that shows a public plan would help lower costs and provide a reliable option that could give Americans better care. Dave and his wife would not have to work through retirement to qualify for a plan, and people like Catherine wouldn’t have to rely on individual insurance plans that don’t cover you when you actually get sick.

The report also projects that if other common elements of various health reform proposals become law, we would see an estimated 100,000 fewer preventable deaths and a cumulative $3 trillion in health system savings between 2010 and 2020 (compared to projected trends).

—Steven Findlay, senior health policy analyst, Consumer Reports Health

Read more about the Commonwealth Fund’s findings, see our Cover America Tour videos of others across the country that highlight the need for reform, and find out what we're doing to help fix the broken health-care system.

Comments

[Ray Caron]

It seems that Congress and the President are finally taking the issues of health care insurance and other health care issues seriously. Recently the subject of taxing employer provider health care has come up and is being studied.

What no one in the Congress and the White House has considered as I am aware of is why a US Corporation is allowed to close down shop,(fire/lay off) all of it employees, move overseas or to Mexico, and then reestablish itself it with the total disregard for all those individuals that worked for them in the US and are now without any health care insurance.

As an example, the Hanes Corporation, which makes undergarments, was operating in the Carolinas for many years. The decision was made to close up, fire approximately 20,000 individuals, and move to China due to lower labor costs. No one begruges Hanes for trying to save on labor costs. The difference between what Hanes was paying to a US worker and what they pay to worker in China is probably considerable also taking into account other benefits such as pension etc. Now considering what a package of undergarments costs to make by a US worker and compared to a Chinese worker is allowing Hanes to reap a large profit.

With what I just stated, Congress and the White House should consider "taxing" those corporations for a percentage of the gross revenues for the purpose of paying for health care for those US workers fired. Hanes is but one of the hundreds of US Companies that either moved overseas or has contracted with Chinese Corporations to manufacture goods and ship back to the US markets for resale. Other companies include Black and Decker, The Crayola Corporation, WalMart, and Dell Computers.

This is one possible way to assist those without any medical insurance.