September, 11 2009, 12:37pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
Uninsured Numbers Show Mandate-Based Health Reforms Don't Work
WASHINGTON
Official estimates released Thursday by the Census Bureau showing a
marginal increase in the number of Americans without health insurance
in 2008 -- now estimated at 46.3 million, up from 45.7 million in 2007
-- mask the true dimensions of the problem, a national doctors' group
said.
Physicians for a National Health Program, a membership organization of
over 17,000 physicians, states: "Significantly, in Massachusetts, where
an individual-mandate health reform law, much like what President Obama
is proposing on a national scale, was passed in 2006, at least 352,000
people, or 5.5 percent of the population, remained uninsured in 2008.
That number was actually (but non-significantly) higher than the number
of uninsured in 2007, before strict enforcement of the individual and
employer mandates went into effect."
STEFFIE WOOLHANDLER, M.D., M.P.H.
DAVID HIMMELSTEIN, M.D.
via Mark Almberg
Woolhandler and Himmelstein are professors of medicine at Harvard
Medical School and co-founders of Physicians for a National Health
Program. Woolhandler said today: "The legislation championed by the
president and the congressional leadership is a virtual clone of the
Massachusetts plan. [The census] numbers show that plans that require
people to buy private insurance don't work. Obama's plan to replicate
Massachusetts' reform nationally risks failure on a massive scale."
For further information see news release and also Woolhandler's testimony regarding the Massachusetts plan.
A nationwide consortium, the Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) represents an unprecedented effort to bring other voices to the mass-media table often dominated by a few major think tanks. IPA works to broaden public discourse in mainstream media, while building communication with alternative media outlets and grassroots activists.
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