Why Delaware Needs Health Reform
Health Care facts and figures, from HealthReform.gov (thanks, HHS Secretary Sebelius!)
DELAWAREANS CAN’T AFFORD THE STATUS QUO
Roughly 575,000 people in Delaware get health insurance on the job, where family premiums average $14,579, about the annual earning of a full-time minimum wage job.
Since 2000 alone, average family premiums have increased by 108 percent in Delaware.
Household budgets are strained by high costs: 24 percent of middle-income Delaware families spend more than 10 percent of their income on health care.
High costs block access to care: 11 percent of people in Delaware report not visiting a doctor due to high costs.
Delaware businesses and families shoulder a hidden health tax of roughly $1,000 per year on premiums as a direct result of subsidizing the costs of the uninsured.AFFORDABLE HEALTH COVERAGE IS INCREASINGLY OUT OF REACH IN DELAWARE
12 percent of people in Delaware are uninsured, and 69 percent of them are in families with at least one full-time worker.
The percent of Delawareans with employer coverage is declining: from 73 to 67 percent between 2000 and 2007.
Much of the decline is among workers in small businesses. While small businesses make up 70 percent of Delaware businesses, only 45 percent of them offered health coverage benefits in 2006.
Choice of health insurance is limited in Delaware. CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield alone constitutes 42 percent of the health insurance market share in Delaware, with the top two insurance providers accounting for 65 percent.
Choice is even more limited for people with pre-existing conditions. In Delaware, premiums can vary based on demographic factors and health status, and coverage can exclude pre-existing conditions or even be denied completely in some cases.
(h/t DKos)
Mike Castle, of course, gets his health insurance via single-payer public option. And so do 9.2 million Americans through the Department of Defense. And yet, Republicans insist the system that serves our nations troops is too terrible to inflict on ordinary Americans. Ask a veteran – such as our own Donviti – and they’ll likely tell you that they much prefer the public option.
Tags: Delaware, Health Care
In today’s Letter to the Editor in the NJ from John Daniello, search all you want for ‘public option’–it’s AWOL.
Daniello and Carper seem to be switched at birth–both seem to refuse to listen to 77% of the country and stand up for a public option for health care.
Curious that the proposed resolution before the New Castle County executive committee of RD chairs also is missing ‘public option.’
The people get it–when will our Delaware Democratic ‘leaders?’
Carper and Daniello–wake TFU
Well said!
Please ask a veteran, better yet ask a Doctor who works in the VA.
My oldest son is a Medical Doctor at Yale University and they cover three hospitals, one is VA.
He likes the patients at the VA the best, he tells me they are receptive and appreciative and all around good people but then he tells me about the VA system which except for EHR’s is a nightmare.
He tells me the first floor of the VA has the splendid offices and all the US flags but then you go up to the wards and the nightmare begins. At times he has to do the EKG because there is no support staff to do so and at the end of the night pain meds are the answer not treatment.
I will give you a video today on the single payer Medicare you embrace, stay tuned. Medicare is not the panacea you think.
Mike Protack
This is what happens when you don’t pay atention to details:
That number, of course, includes both the employer’s and employee’s shares. If you don’t take note of that, you are distorting the truth. It’s certainly arguable that the employer’s part is simply an unseen (and untaxed) part of the employee’s total compensation, but the fact that it is so hidden really needs to be noted.
Unlike Mr Protack, I don’t have much “first floor” experience with the VA Hospitals, but have plenty of experience with their actual care. My father-in-law was a VA patient, and yeah, the care was “free,” but it was a terrible place to be.
The VA Hospital in Hampton, Virginia, where he died, is a great contrast. On the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, just south of the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel, it has spacious lawns, and great views of the bay. From the outside, it looks like a beautiful, older setting, a great place. On the inside, well, you don’t want to be on the inside. Death is in the air.
There is a reform bill in the Legislature its SB 120, the Delaware Health Care bill…why dont you progressives who claim you are supporters of single payer actually discussing it. Whats up did Markell tell you not to mention it. Are you aware of the Chamber of Commerce , the Del. Public (Private) think tanks, and other pro business groups, rallying their forces against it?
If you support HR 676, ask the union so called leaders, why they are not PUBLICLY supporting a mirror of that bill, which is SB 120. Union so called leaders will take busloads to DC in support of HR 676, while SB 120 the exact same bill gets no attention. The demorats havent given the nod to the legislators yet, or else it would pulled out of the drawer and worked.
Single payer would cost l.5% to administer, while the robber baron insurance companies are taking 31% to administer. Why hasnt Jack Markell and his Economic advisor actually run the numbers for single payer against ANY other insurance premiums in this State? Thats the question, why are you afraid to ask it?