Healthcare - The problems

I remember quite well January 15, 2002.  It was the day that my son Jonathan, age 18, was diagnosed with leukemia and had a few weeks to a month to live without treatment.  It was my personal 911.  My total focus became what to do for him; his treatment, support and care.  The treatment was extremely rough but gratefully was successful.  In our joy and reflection for the future, I began to see healthcare in a different light.  We had good coverage though my employer, Cisco.  Because of the large pool and government regulations, the insurance company could not change more rates or reject me in the future.  I realized that my son would have a different fate.  It is possible that he could never get an affordable insurance policy outside of a group.

There actually are a number of challenges and problems with US healthcare but coverage is the one that most transfixed me after this experience.  I realized that those with any type of catastrophic or chronic health care are often excluded from future coverage.  You can pay in for years, yet have a single incident that raises your risk and suddenly you are rejected.

Many well-meaning people do not realize how bad it can get.  Younger people with good health or anyone without serious issues working for a large company such as Cisco can get quite good care at affordable prices.    The problem is that many do have such good options (see http://www.nchc.org/facts/coverage.shtml):

• Nearly 47 million Americans, or 16 percent of the population, were without health insurance in 2005, the latest government data available.1
  
• The number of uninsured rose 2.2 million between 2005 and 2006 and has increased by almost 9 million people since 2000.1
  
• The large majority of the uninsured (80 percent) are native or naturalized citizens.2
  
• The increase in the number of uninsured in 2006 was focused among working age adults. The percentage of working adults (18 to 64) who had no health coverage climbed from 19.7 percent in 2005 to 20.2 percent in 2006.1 Nearly 1.3 million full-time workers lost their health insurance in 2006.
  
• Nearly 90 million people - about one-third of the population below the age of 65 spent a portion of either 2006 or 2007 without health coverage.3
  
• Over 8 in 10 uninsured people come from working families - almost 70 percent from families with one or more full-time workers and 11 percent from families with part-time workers.2
  
• The percentage of people (workers and dependents) with employment-based health insurance has dropped from 70 percent in 1987 to 59 percent in 2006. This is the lowest level of employment-based insurance coverage in more than a decade.4, 5
  
• In 2005, nearly 15 percent of employees had no employer-sponsored health coverage available to them, either through their own job or through a family member.6
  
• In 2006, 37.7 million workers were uninsured because not all businesses offer health benefits, not all workers qualify for coverage and many employees cannot afford their share of the health insurance premium even when coverage is at their fingertips.1
  
• The number of uninsured children in 2006 was 8.7 million - or 11.7 percent of all children in the U.S.1 The number of children who are uninsured increased by nearly 610,000 in 2006, the second year that the number of uninsured children increased.
  
• Young adults (18-to-24 years old) remained the least likely of any age group to have health insurance in 2005 - 29.3 percent of this group did not have health insurance.1
  
• The percentage and the number of uninsured Hispanics increased to 34.1 percent and 15.3 million in 2006.1
  
• Nearly 40 percent of the uninsured population reside in households that earn $50,000 or more.1 A growing number of middle-income families cannot afford health insurance payments even when coverage is offered by their employers.

So it is easy to ignore the problem until you face it personally.  The election 2008 is an opportunity to explore and diligently examine the issues of health care in the US.  Sure there are other issues such as cost and quality.  There is also the issues of personal freedom and individual responsiblity.  I will try to explore some of the issues and facts in further posts to this blog.  Keep posted.