Impeding changes to our Health Care system

Originally Posted by classicman

Thanks for the graph. It's about time! Does that say how many choose not to purchase insurance? What again is the "poverty level"?

The most recent poverty and health insurance data is in the Census report released earlier this month. I just thought the colorful graph was prettier than the raw data.

Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2008
(pdf - see table 7, page 28)

As to the question of choosing to purchase insurance, many factors affect that choice, including the cost.

Consider the fact that the average cost for health insurance for a family of four is now over $12K.

If you are employed and covered by your employer's plan, you pay, on average about 30% of that cost and the employer covers the rest.

If you work for a small business or self-employed, you must purchase that insurance on the open market and pay the full cost yourself.

You might choose to forgo health insurance if it would require 20-25% of your income.

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

No, the family members receive it as a benefit to the service member, who gets it for a time commitment under a contractual obligation with the government. Package deal. Given what many of them go through, I say it is a benefit well deserved.

Personally, I think accessible and affordable quality health care should be a right for all citizens as it is in every other western industrialized country.

Originally Posted by sugarpop

This is why we need a SINGLE PAYER SYSTEM, and for those who think the government can't run anything right, fine, let it be run by a private company, and PAID FOR by the government. Get rid of all the insurance companies. A single payor system would automatically reduce costs, because there is no advertising, and it would cut down dramatically on administrative costs.

While I might share your ultimate goal. I dont think we can get there from here. The political will is not there.

I prefer a more pragmatic approach....half a cake is better than none.

Increased competition through either a public option (first choice) or public/private exchange w/pools for small business employers as well as providing the opportunity for big businesses to purchase across state lines (with some limitation) to provide more choice, is a good first step to help drive down the cost of existing private insurance.