Over 40 million in U.S. can't afford health care: report

[Joanne98]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than 40 million people in the United States say they cannot afford adequate heath care and go without drugs, eyeglasses or dental treatment, according to a federal report released on Monday.

The latest look at the state of U.S. health care also shows that while death rates from cancer and heart disease have dropped in recent years, just as many Americans are dying in car crashes.

"There has been important progress made in many areas of health such as increased life expectancy and decreases in deaths from leading killers such as heart disease and cancer," Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a statement.

"But this report shows that access to health care is still an issue where we need improvement."



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN0343703420071203

[Whoa_Nelly]

1. Nice to know I'm in a studied numbers group

:eyes:

[1monster]

2. Make that 40 million and three. My insurance has dropped my family as of August 2008 and the

rate I've been quoted for replacement insurance is three times the amount I'm paying now. I can get insurance for my husband through his place of work for about a hundred dollars less than I'm paying now, but to add my son and myself to it will double what we are paying now.

I can't afford it. And my home insurance company has dropped us. In order to get replacement home insurance, I have to get a new roof (by January) and it will be 25% more than what I'm paying now...

I'm insurance poor already.

[rockybelt]

3. Access is not the problem

The problem is affordability.

Example:

You are working for a corporation and your wife suffers a stroke. You do have health insurance. Your wife is working but she is part time and does not have health insurance.
You get laid off because your industry is in the toilet. You get COBRA and are covered for a year.
While your wife is in the hospital being treated for a stroke, the company that she works for fires her for leaving work without permission. Perfectly legal according to our lawyer.
Your wife is also diagnosed with high blood pressure and diabetes while she is being treated for the stroke.
After release from the hospital your wife enters rehabilitation and is required to attend at least 90 sessions. Your insurance runs out.
You have saved some money but since it takes a year after your wife has been certified, by a government doctor, as being 100% disabled to apply for social security disability, you must survive on your own.
There goes your savings.
After your wife starts receiving disability, another year must pass before she is eligible to apply for medicare. You must provide your own health care in the meantime.

Medicare only pays so much. You can purchase health insurance for yourself. Every insurance company must provide coverage. They do not have to supply it at an affordable rate however.
I provide hospitalization only for myself at about $300.oo per month. If I were to purchase health care for my wife, even with disability medicare, the cost of her insurance would be appx $1,500.00 per month. She is on disability and I am on Social Security. You tell me, can I afford insurance?

The problem is not accessibility. The problem is affordability. We can only afford to remain healthy (not an option) or die.

If we took the medications that are prescribed by doctors it would cost us at least $400.00 per month. Not much you say. You try it when you're on social security. Remember, I can only make $12,400 per year to retain my social security, My wife cannot work.

Access? Truth is access is a problem. If you cannot afford health insurance, you cannot have access.

Even with medicare you cannot access a lot of the medical attention that you may need. Because if you cannot afford it, you cannot access it.

Access is not the problem. If you can afford medical insurance you have access. If you cannot afford health care insurance, you have no access.

[JeanGrey]

5. I am on social security disability. You can apply for that after

six months, not a year, as you said. I got my first check the 7th month. Who made you wait a year?

I sympathize with the insurance problem, I'm in the same boat, except my monthly medications are almost $1500.00. I already pay close to $1000 a month for insurance and will be without next year. We need health care reform!!!

[rockybelt]

6. The social security office

her in KC made us wait. The rules may have changed since my wife applied.

[MrMickeysMom]

4. Were it not for the fascist agenda of war profiteering, we'd be facing this real crisis...

Everything everyone's said here gets to me. It is true. I find it interesting that safety issues (car crashes) have remained the same. That's something that cannot be managed by big pharma, focusing on where you go while you live crazy trying to survive.

My friend told me a while back when I wasn't sure about affording health insurance, "I recommend you not carry any". I believe she felt that not paying premiums, and negotiating how you manage out of pocket was a better bet. But, we're beyond being able to do that. One out of three kids living below the poverty line? Kids not even seeing a Dentist. I don't have dental or visual care like I did a year ago and I already negotiate the dentist, and putting off my next eye exam.

[rockybelt]

7. Everybody

is putting off everything, including myself. My doctor wants to do some testing and I can't afford it. It is just going to have to wait until I get medicare.
I do pay for hospitalization at appx. $300.00 per month but it don't pay everything. I had to go into the hospital in Jan of 06 and stayed for a total of 22 hours. The total bill for that one day was a little less than $16,000.00 of which I had to pay $2,500.00.
The cost of insurance and the cost of health care are both out of sight and more and more people are being forced to drop their insurance every day. It is a terrible indictment against our so called government.

[DeepModem Mom]

8. K&R

[Javaman]

9. As long as the front runners are accepting donations from the

phara corps and insurance companies, national health care is pretty much dead in the water.

[brentspeak]

10. But I thought the "free market" would take care of this?

Yeah, right.

[Hugin]

11. One of my friends recently tried to 'walk off' a ruptured ovarian cyst...

I suppose if she'd had health insurance she might've gone to a doctor.

But, that'd be what a COMMIE would do.

[Zorra]

12. If 40,000,000 say they can't afford it, that means 80,000,000 can't

afford it, give or take a few million.

[Hestia]

13. I work for an agency that supports the aging - and here are some tips

1. Those who are eligible for Medicare and are not working, get it. It costs $98 + change per month. If you drop Medicare when you are eligible, it is a huge process to get it back.

2. Even if you have private insurance, make Medicare your primary insurance. There is a penalty for NOT using Medicare. (See how those lobbists wrote the new law?)

3. Get a Part D when you are eligible. There are low cost plans around if you are healthy and are not on medication. If you turn down Part D and try to get on it months/years down the road, you will have to a per month percentage penalty for the rest of your life for Part D. Eg, 6 years = 72 months, which means you will pay 72% penalty for not signing up at 65. (See how those lobbists wrote the law?)

4. Part D - shop around each and every year. Insurance companies are banking that you do not have the where-with-all to outlast and actually shop around. We have already had 10 people and are booked solid for the rest of the month with seniors coming in with help on shopping for the best plans. Some save hundreds over what they are paying now - some less. All depends on what plan and what medication you are taking.

5. For disability, etc. - have ya'll called your Area Agency on Aging? There is one in each and every county. They are there for you to apply for help. Their job is to help with food stamps, legal issues, etc. Contact them - your tax dollars pay for this service.

I am at work and gotta sign off...there are other places out there that help people on disability. When I get a chance, I can make a list.

[freebrew]

14. Even some who CAN afford it, can't get it...

try getting insured if you've had a heart attack.
Better yet, my daughter, son and I have a genetic disorder that we found out about a few years ago.
Insurance paid then, a large(to me) sum of about $150,000, maybe more to get my daughter straightened out.

Private insurance won't even consider any of us.

Losing my job at the end of the year, and I'm 56.
Not a good prospect of finding employment, as I'm a non-degreed worker doing engineering work.

So, I'm old, get paid more than I should(according to the market) and I get canned because of it.

Lovely system the Pubs have given us, eh?

[Vinca]

15. I think it's way more than 40 million and the people who do have insurance

had better check there policies to see just what is covered. I've heard of people having claims denied by their insurance company because their condition was "probably" pre-existing and they should have known about it. I can't afford insurance. My husband couldn't get it at any price. Even my doctor has gone out of business because his own medical bills are so high (fighting non-Hodgkin's lymphoma for years) he can't afford to keep his practice running. It turns out the insurance companies screw the providers almost as badly as they screw their policy holders.

[harun]

17. Exactly, people with insurance aren't actually funding coverage

they are funding profits for the for-profit Health Insurance companies.

Nothing is stopping an insurance company from not paying for a penny of your coverage, NOTHING. There are no safe guards, you can take them to court and probably win, but when you are sick you should be healing, not fighting your insurance company and being terrified you might go bankrupt.

[lovuian]

16. As a person who knows the Health Industry really well

Its collapsing

Uninsured is increasing
And health costs increasing double digits percentage points
when inflation rate is like 3%

if a disaster hits we are all majorly screwed

Universal Healthcare is coming and they know it

[laconicsax]

18. And Sen. Clinton says

that 60-90% of the uninsured won't get insurance unless it's mandatory (here. That implies that 10-40% of the uninsured are those who can't afford it.

If those 40 million are only 10%, then that means that 360 million won't get insurance unless it's mandatory--that's more than the population of the US.

If those 40 million are only 40%, then that means that 60 million won't do so. 100 million is 1/3 of the US population

Either way, you wind up with 100-400 million uninsured Americans (out of a total 300 million) if Sen. Clinton is right about the necessity of mandating insurance coverage.

Either her numbers are wrong or somewhere between 1/3 and 4/3 of the US population isn't insured.

[OhioChick]

19. I Believe That

40 Mil is on the low side.

[sarcasmo]

20. This is why forcing people to pay for health insurance won't work.

Kick and Nom.