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TechnoratiHealthcare Reform Vital, US Health Agency Says
WASHINGTON - Reform of the U.S. healthcare system is vital this year because of growing costs and worsening care, the Health and Human Services Department said in a report on Monday.
![[A doctor walks through a mock graveyard at a rally against health care cuts in February 2009 in San Francisco. "Today's report outlines the high cost of waiting to fix a system that has left too many Americans without the affordable, quality care they deserve," HHS spokeswoman Jenny Backus said in a statement.(AFP/Getty Images/File/Justin Sullivan)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/publichealth.jpg "publichealth.jpg")
The HHS report, published at www.healthreform.gov, compiles findings of dozens of studies that have been used to justify calls for a complete overhaul of the healthcare system.
While the need for change is not controversial, conservatives and liberals differ on how that should be approached. President Barack Obama has said he wants legislation this year but is leaving the details up to Congress to work out.
"Today's report outlines the high cost of waiting to fix a system that has left too many Americans without the affordable, quality care they deserve," HHS spokeswoman Jenny Backus said in a statement.
The report points out that the United States spent $2.2 trillion on healthcare in 2007, or $7,421 per capita. Healthcare accounts for more than 16 percent of gross domestic product, nearly twice the average of other developed nations.
Healthcare costs doubled from 1996 to 2006, and are projected to rise to 25 percent of GDP in 2025; 49 percent by 2082 if something does not change.
"Employer-sponsored health insurance premiums have more than doubled in the last nine years," the report reads. "As a result of these crushing health care costs, American businesses are losing their ability to compete in the global marketplace."
More than 160 million Americans get health insurance through employers. "Health care at General Motors puts the company at a $5 billion disadvantage against Toyota, which spends $1,400 less on health care per vehicle," the report added -- quoting former General Motors Corp's chief executive officer Rick Wagoner.
"In spite of the vast resources invested, the health care system has not yet reached the goal of high-quality care," the report said.
"Across 37 performance indicators, the United States achieved an overall score of 65 out of a possible 100," it said, citing the non-profit Commonwealth Foundation. The Obama administration has relied heavily on such reports in setting its healthcare strategy.
(Reporting by Maggie Fox, editing by Vick Allen)
16 Comments so far
Show AllHealthcare is not a luxury-it is a human right.
"waiting to fix a system that has left too many Americans without the affordable, quality care they deserve,"
I deserve quality care? This is news to me. I can't even get the debate to acknowledge my existence, let alone stipulate that my health is as important as a union member or a member of congress. Why should I pay taxes for their care when I cannot afford care for myself? Hello. News. This happens. All labor is not union. Many people work for small businesses that do not provide health care. Many people are self employed. Many of these people make enough money to pay taxes but not enough to buy health insurance that actually provides insurance against bankruptcy.
Keep pretending we don't exist. Keep pretending that you're going to do something, make a "down payment" or some other bull. I will be taxed to pay for the legacy cost of insuring union members who made more per hour with benefits than I could ever dream of. I will be taxed to pay $18B a year so that federal employees can have the best care, while I cannot afford even preventive screenings. Keep pretending that union labor represents all the working people in this country. Keep pretending that congress isn't bought and paid for whores for medical profiteers. I will keep reminding you that I am here and I pay the price.
Yes, health care reform is vital for the U.S. to compete with other companies globally. But it is not the only reason our economy is ailing. There is no sharing of the benefits of production. CEO's who make 340 times the average worker; instead of 10, as in Japan. Promising something and then not funding it; so shareholders get a boost. Many things could be added to this; the list is to long.
But there are also a list on the other side. Lack of personal responsibility towards your individual health care. More preventive maintenance. Exercise. Moderation of things that could harm you. WE can't save everyone at the price it costs. We need to take the good of all in mind instead of our own individual good.
Not going to happen, because our of society; who has been brainwashed into a me, myself, and I mentality, will stifle it.
My husband and I are small business owners, and having survived the excesses of our early adulthood we live very modest lives. But a single health emergency could wipe us out. So we pay ridiculous sums for catastrophic coverage intended to prevent just that. With a $5,000 deductible there is no way that coverage will help us out with 'preventive maintenance'. Money that could go there generally ends up going to the dentist instead. We truly feel that the amount we pay for catastrophic coverage is a form of extortion. It does us absolutely no good whatsoever in terms of our actual health, in fact it limits our choices for preserving that health by throwing our health care dollars into a black hole (we have never filed a claim) rather than providing us with the means to seek out preventive care. So we just sit on the sidelines and watch the whole system implode . . .
I'm in the same boat, but I had to give up paying for my extortion. I had a $7500 deductible and, like you, although I could afford the extortion, I sure couldn't afford to use it. Little things like your doctor recommends a colonoscopy to follow up on the guaiac test and you realize you can't afford the colonoscopy and couldn't afford treatment if it showed cancer. So I cancelled my extortion. I sit on the sidelines knowing that my taxes go to pay for all kinds of other people to have insurance. I might die from a cancer that is treatable. I take very good care of myself because obviously, in the country I live in, I don't matter.
We can't judge what's going on in Washington because it's masked by the fog of the people's indifference and ignorance. Only when the people start demanding what's in their better interest can we tell if Washington is serving or defying us. Of course this change in our behavior goes against our conditioning, which suggests that our conditioning needs to be changed, by grass roots initiative. First lesson in the curriculum: teach ourselves to ostracize the elites from the society. Like the Frankenstein monster shrieked "fire bad! fire bad!", we can teach ourselves to shriek "elites bad! elites bad!" Eliminating the oppression clears the fog of ignorance and we naturally take to our better interests, we get productive and we start taking care of things. It's a holistic approach. It "covers all the bases".
The longer the government waits to do something about healthcare the more people will die. This is what the government wants to happen.
I fear that the global plan is to force everyone to buy private insurance.
Certain unemployed people are getting their cobra paid for by the government. I do not understand why the government would be paying this and will not come up with a plan to help everyone.
I guess keeping the insurance companies in profit is more important than people dying and such.
Obama will never be able to lower costs as more boomers reach retirement age.
He plans to just allow us to do without healthcare.
In an article posted at The Nation, John Nichols reports that Senator Bernie Sanders has introduced single-payer in the Senate.
raydelcamino, thanks for the good details. i hadn't thought about that angle of the relationship between employment trends and the (terrible) health care "system". who was the Lousisana Congressperson?
Opal
Opal, that was former Rep. Billy Tauzin, who, when in public office, represented a different set of petrochemical polluters (think Hurricane Katrina + "hazmat gumbo").
I am not enthusiastic about the notion that a totally corrupt congress will listen to anythisng but the sound of greenbacks pouring into their own coffers. Money talks..and bullshit (the peasant's interest)..walks.
As much as I hate to see so many Americans lose their jobs, perhaps another year or two of 600,000 Americans losing their jobs each month, combined with a 75-80% reduction in the number of people retiring (in order to keep medical insurance), will be the only hope of eliminating employer-based medical insurance in the US.
Must we hang all the genocidal monsters that are keeping Americans in bondage
before we get Universal One Payer Healthcare? . . . Premonition of civil war...Dali.
We Americans in bondage are the lucky ones. At least we have a job, and medical insurance.
More unfortunate are the unemployed and college graduates who are finding far fewer family wage jobs with benefits as a result of me and millions of other boomers delaying our retirements for 5, 10, 15 years. If affordable single-payer insurance were available to Americans under 65 years of age, millions of us would retire tomorrow.
Obama will be hard pressed to win in 2012 when so many young people that voted for him in 2008 are unemployed.
All US businesses that compete with foreign businesses (not just GM or other US automotive firms) are at a competitive disadvantage due to employer-based medical insurance (that is unique to the US) and lack of a US single-payer system. As a result, many US businesses folded during good times and many more will fold as the depression worsens.
Obama, AARP, the financial industry (which includes insurance companies), and the pharmaceutical industry are driving current "healthcare reform" and they have taken single-payer off the table, thereby preventing meaningful reform from occurring.
By leaving reform up to the US Congress, Obama is opening the door for a repeat of the 2003 Medicare Pharma Extortion Act which prevents the US Gov. from negotiating drug prices. Just as a Lousiana Congresman walked into a two million dollar per year big pharma job after championing that bill, at least one Congressman or woman will hit the jackpot with the current legislation.
"President Barack Obama has said he wants legislation this year but is leaving the details up to Congress to work out."
The details on the plan to make a $650B "down payment" on doing more of what hasn't worked because the current 16% of GDP isn't enough to cover costs, provide platinum-plated air-conditioned golden cush-chutes to the Executive Class? Or the details to spend $20B to put all medical records onto the internet so that radiologist in India can read x-rays for less? Which detail helps the American public? Anyone expect the Congress to see past the details in their donor list?