Health Care Costs and Access, US, Canada

Back in 2006, 45 Million Americans, one out of every six people, had no health insurance. When those one of every six people got exposed to something contagious, they exposed a lot of other people. Given the level of unemployment today, the number of people without health insurance is probably higher. It includes everyone who lost their job and can't afford or no longer qualifies for COBRA.  According to a report on CNN, produced by Jennifer Pifer-Bixler, published March 4, 2009, at some point during 2007 or 2008, 86.7 Million Americans -One out of Three were without health insurance.

As Peter Barnes put it, in Capitalism 3.0, (ISBN-10: 1-57675-361-1)

Here's the bottom line.  All Canadians get health care and peace of mind at a per capita cost that's about 45% lower than ours. Canada lays out less than ten cents of every health care dollar on administration, while we spend nearly thirty cents (and that doesn't include time and energy patients themselves spend on paperwork.) What's more, our health care system doesn't even keep us healthy. Our infant mortality is higher than Canada's, our life expectancy is lower, and we have proportionally more obesity, cancer, diabetes, and depression. To top it off, forty-five million of us have no health insurance at all.

Health Care By The Numbers, 2005	United States	Canada
Estimated per capita expenditures (2004; US $)	$6,040	$3,326
Percent spent on administration (1999)	26%	10%
Monthly premium for family of four	$1045	$88
Male life expectancy (years)	75	77
Female life expectancy (years)	81	84
Infant mortality (per 1,000 births)	6.4	4.7

This is not why Paul Revere rode thru Boston on the 18th of April in '75. This is not why John Hancock, Sam Adams, John Adams, Richard Stockton, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and the rest of the 56 delegates signed the Declaration of Independence (U S History . org , wikipedia).

This is not the America I know and love.

Here's the article on CNN :

Study: 86.7 million Americans uninsured over last two years

By Jennifer Pifer-Bixler, CNN Senior Medial Producer
March 5, 2009: 1:44 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNN) -- One out of three Americans under 65 went without health insurance at some point during 2007 and 2008, according to a report released Wednesday.

The study, commissioned by the consumer health advocacy group Families USA, found 86.7 million Americans were uninsured for at least a portion of those two years.

Among the report's key findings:

• Nearly three out of four of those uninsured Americans were without health insurance for at least six months.
• Almost two-thirds of them were uninsured for nine months or more.
• Four out of five of the uninsured were in working families.
• People without health insurance are less likely to have a usual doctor and often go without screenings or preventative care.

"The huge number of people without health coverage is worse than an epidemic," Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, said in a news release. "Inaction on health care reform in 2009 cannot be an option for the tens of millions of people who lack or lose health coverage each year. ... The cost of doing nothing is too high."