Cummings, Elijah E.
Baltimore Afro-American
07-16-2004
We have a long and difficult road to travel before universal health care is
recognized as a basic civil right in this country, but a growing number of
Americans are beginning to ask the right questions.
Why, for example, is the United States the only industrialized country that
does not have a health insurance system that covers everyone? Wealth should
not be a pre-condition to world-class health care in a nation that truly
values all its people.
By now, most Americans are familiar with the census figures that identified
more than 40 million Americans who lack health insurance coverage. Last
month, however, the consumer health organization, Families USA, announced
that the scope of this national problem is even more pervasive.
Nearly 82 million people under the age of 65 (fully one-third of all
working-age Americans) were without health insurance for all or part of
2002 and 2003. More than two-thirds were uninsured for more than six
months.
Families USA also confirmed what policy makers have long believed, that
four out of five of these uninsured Americans belong to families in which
at least one adult is employed.
Their employers either do not offer employee health plans or the insurance
premiums and other costs that the employees are expected to cover are too
expensive for their family budgets.
From the perspective of public health policy, what makes the Families USA
report so significant is the fact that employment-based insurance coverage
is the foundation of health care funding in this country.
When 64 million working Americans are uninsured for substantial periods of
time, this nation is confronted by more than a serious problem. Our
strategy for providing health insurance is in a crisis, one that has been
getting steadily worse.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported that the
percentage of working-age adults without insurance coverage actually
increased between 1997 and 2003. The reasons are complex, but this much is
clear: More Americans are working low-paid or part-time jobs that do not
provide health insurance coverage.
Insurance costs are increasing, and those employers who do offer coverage
are shifting more and more of those costs onto their employees costs that
the workers often cannot afford to pay.
We also know that those areas of our economy in which any job growth is
occurring are about 10 percent less likely to provide health care coverage
than those in which the number of available jobs is shrinking.
These facts argue strongly that now is the time to give serious thought to
reforming the employment-based health insurance system.
The human consequences of having tens of millions of Americans uninsured
are appalling. Necessary medical treatment is being delayed too long or
denied altogether. The American people are incurring increased health care
costs because of these delays.
Most appalling of all is that Americans are dying before their time.
There is no human right more fundamental than the preservation of life.
When the lives of 64 million Americans are being threatened, that is a
civil rights challenge of the most compelling urgency.
All of us have a personal interest in overcoming this threat.
Proportionately, Hispanic Americans and African Americans have been hit
hardest by the failure to assure health care for all. At least 60 percent
of Hispanic Americans and more than 43 percent of African Americans are
among the uninsured (compared to 23 percent of Caucasians).
Yet, it is also important to recognize that the largest number of Americans
without health insurance are White.
Therein lies the foundation for a broadly based, grass roots movement
dedicated to solving this health care crisis.
There has to be a better way to assure universal, high quality care, and
there is. That is why a number of my colleagues and I have joined Michigan
Rep. John Conyers in proposing the United States National Health Insurance
Act (H.R. 676), legislation that would create a nation-wide, single-payer
health care system that is publicly financed but provides private care.
We would expand and improve the existing Medicare program to cover
Americans of all ages. Under our plan, Americans would retain (or regain)
the right to choose their own doctors and other health care professionals,
all medically necessary services would be covered and there would be no
co-pays or deductibles.
The price tag would be substantial, but experts have confirmed that we
could actually reduce this nation's health care bill by sharply reducing
the administrative costs and profits that now dominate many private health
insurance plans and through the negotiation of reasonable rates for care
and prescription drugs.
We do not realistically expect that President Bush and his allies in the
Republican congressional leadership will allow serious consideration of our
proposal during this Congress. We are hopeful, however, that the climate
for change will improve for the better after Election Day 2004.
The U.S. health care system is broken, and it is time for a change.
Health care is a fundamental right of every human being and now is the time
to transform that human right into a civil right guaranteed by federal law.
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings represents Maryland's 7th Congressional District
and chairs the Congressional Black Caucus.
Article copyright the AFRO-AMERICAN Company.
V.112
Baltimore Afro-American
07-16-2004
We have a long and difficult road to travel before universal health care is
recognized as a basic civil right in this country, but a growing number of
Americans are beginning to ask the right questions.
Why, for example, is the United States the only industrialized country that
does not have a health insurance system that covers everyone? Wealth should
not be a pre-condition to world-class health care in a nation that truly
values all its people.
By now, most Americans are familiar with the census figures that identified
more than 40 million Americans who lack health insurance coverage. Last
month, however, the consumer health organization, Families USA, announced
that the scope of this national problem is even more pervasive.
Nearly 82 million people under the age of 65 (fully one-third of all
working-age Americans) were without health insurance for all or part of
2002 and 2003. More than two-thirds were uninsured for more than six
months.
Families USA also confirmed what policy makers have long believed, that
four out of five of these uninsured Americans belong to families in which
at least one adult is employed.
Their employers either do not offer employee health plans or the insurance
premiums and other costs that the employees are expected to cover are too
expensive for their family budgets.
From the perspective of public health policy, what makes the Families USA
report so significant is the fact that employment-based insurance coverage
is the foundation of health care funding in this country.
When 64 million working Americans are uninsured for substantial periods of
time, this nation is confronted by more than a serious problem. Our
strategy for providing health insurance is in a crisis, one that has been
getting steadily worse.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported that the
percentage of working-age adults without insurance coverage actually
increased between 1997 and 2003. The reasons are complex, but this much is
clear: More Americans are working low-paid or part-time jobs that do not
provide health insurance coverage.
Insurance costs are increasing, and those employers who do offer coverage
are shifting more and more of those costs onto their employees costs that
the workers often cannot afford to pay.
We also know that those areas of our economy in which any job growth is
occurring are about 10 percent less likely to provide health care coverage
than those in which the number of available jobs is shrinking.
These facts argue strongly that now is the time to give serious thought to
reforming the employment-based health insurance system.
The human consequences of having tens of millions of Americans uninsured
are appalling. Necessary medical treatment is being delayed too long or
denied altogether. The American people are incurring increased health care
costs because of these delays.
Most appalling of all is that Americans are dying before their time.
There is no human right more fundamental than the preservation of life.
When the lives of 64 million Americans are being threatened, that is a
civil rights challenge of the most compelling urgency.
All of us have a personal interest in overcoming this threat.
Proportionately, Hispanic Americans and African Americans have been hit
hardest by the failure to assure health care for all. At least 60 percent
of Hispanic Americans and more than 43 percent of African Americans are
among the uninsured (compared to 23 percent of Caucasians).
Yet, it is also important to recognize that the largest number of Americans
without health insurance are White.
Therein lies the foundation for a broadly based, grass roots movement
dedicated to solving this health care crisis.
There has to be a better way to assure universal, high quality care, and
there is. That is why a number of my colleagues and I have joined Michigan
Rep. John Conyers in proposing the United States National Health Insurance
Act (H.R. 676), legislation that would create a nation-wide, single-payer
health care system that is publicly financed but provides private care.
We would expand and improve the existing Medicare program to cover
Americans of all ages. Under our plan, Americans would retain (or regain)
the right to choose their own doctors and other health care professionals,
all medically necessary services would be covered and there would be no
co-pays or deductibles.
The price tag would be substantial, but experts have confirmed that we
could actually reduce this nation's health care bill by sharply reducing
the administrative costs and profits that now dominate many private health
insurance plans and through the negotiation of reasonable rates for care
and prescription drugs.
We do not realistically expect that President Bush and his allies in the
Republican congressional leadership will allow serious consideration of our
proposal during this Congress. We are hopeful, however, that the climate
for change will improve for the better after Election Day 2004.
The U.S. health care system is broken, and it is time for a change.
Health care is a fundamental right of every human being and now is the time
to transform that human right into a civil right guaranteed by federal law.
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings represents Maryland's 7th Congressional District
and chairs the Congressional Black Caucus.
Article copyright the AFRO-AMERICAN Company.
V.112
