Sick and Getting Sicker

[donsu]

http://counterpunch.com/lalasz04232007.html


Lack of Basic Health Insurance Kills 18,000 Americans Every Year


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--the health care system isn't working.

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Now, more than a dozen years after the Clintons' health care "reform" collapsed in a mess of half-measures and concessions to business--and following the Bush administration's meddling on behalf of health care corporations--the number of uninsured is one-third higher, at 46.6 million.

That's more than the combined population of Oregon, Oklahoma, Connecticut, Iowa, Mississippi, Arkansas, Kansas, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, West Virginia, Nebraska, Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Montana, Delaware, South Dakota, Alaska, North Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming--with every single person facing financial destitution if they or a family member get sick or injured.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, almost one-third of Latinos are uninsured, along with about one-fifth of African Americans. Fifteen percent of children aren't covered, nor are 17.7 percent--or one in six--of full-time workers, nor even 11.2 percent of families classified as middle income, with household earnings between $50,000 and $75,000 a year.

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The corporate giants of the health care industry are the big winners. The pharmaceutical giant Johnson and Johnson made profits of $10 billion in 2005, followed closely by Pfizer at $8 billion in earnings, according to Fortune magazine. The drug companies Proctor and Gamble, Merck, Amgen, Abbot and the insurer UnitedHealth Group are all among the 50 most profitable of U.S. Fortune 500 companies.
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the pharma and insurance barons don't make money off of healthy people

ergo, keep us sick. they are very good and tricky at keeping us sick.

too sick and/or worried about finances to fight back.

[John Q. Citizen]

1. Yep. Single payer fee for service universal coverage is the only way to

contain costs and cover everyone. We already speand more than enough money currently on health care to do this.

I won't vote for any Dem in the primary who doesn't make a committment to fight for single payer. Anything else is just protecting the insurance corporations at the expense of the people in our country.

[PDJane]

2. That's more uninsured........

Than Canada has people.

[Bassic]

3. Yeah, way more. nt

[shadowknows69]

4. Keep watching my posts for this disaster live and up close

n/t