REPORT: 14,000 Americans Lose Health Insurance Every Day
REPORT: 14,000 Americans Lose Health Insurance Every Day
The final stimulus package, which the President is scheduled to sign later this afternoon, includes a fair number of health provisions. Yet it’s not a total victory for progressive health advocates. In the run-up to the passage last week of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, negotiators compromised on some key health components:
For instance, while the final compromise includes $87 billion in additional Medicaid funds to states over 27 months, a 65% subsidy to cover COBRA premiums for nine months, $19 billion for health information technology, $1.1 billion for comparative effectiveness research and $1 billion for prevention and wellness, negotiators considered Republican objections and stripped provisions that would have allowed workers “to stay on Cobra until they qualified for Medicare” or enroll in Medicaid if they can’t afford COBRA premiums “even with the new subsidies”.
Despite these concessions (and many others), only three Republicans voted for the stimulus bill. The rest stonewalled action to help the economy recover, even as millions of Americans were losing their jobs and health insurance. In fact, according to a forthcoming analysis by James Kvaal and Ben Furnas, as the unemployment rate grew by 0.8 points in December and January, nearly 100,000 people a week or 14,000 people a day lost their health coverage:
Obama reminded lawmakers, “This is not a game…These are your constituents. These are families you know and you care about.” Yet Republicans ignored those suffering from the burden of growing health care costs and limited access, and took their marching orders from conservative pundits who urged lawmakers to unite against the bill.
The ranks of the uninsured will grow as the recession persists, in spite of conservative obstructionism. As Jacob Hacker points out, the stimulus “won’t provide the cure. What we need is a new New Deal.”
Indeed, the reality of 14,000 Americans losing their health coverage daily suggests that the stimulus is no substitute for health reform. Congress must now turn the page to reforming the health care system, dragging conservatives kicking and screaming across the finish line.
3 Responses to “REPORT: 14,000 Americans Lose Health Insurance Every Day”
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President Obama fawned over Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Buacus in his Denver speech. Max is a Chamber of Commerce stooge. Count on his health care reform to facilitate the dumping of health insurance costs to the employee.
Ron Wyden D-OR submitted such a plan in the past. Look for a public shafting, to benefit private health care.
Obama’s two initiatives pay for performance and public-private partnerships spell more health care pain for citizens.
February 17th, 2009 at 3:34 pmThe growing unemployment rate aggravates the health insurance issues, and if the economic recession continues to ravage our investors expect surge in the number of unemployed uninsured Americans. Subsidized Medicaid cannot hold up in the long run. After the 27 months and a little or no economic progress takes place, the government has to shoulder economic problems of other institutions directly affecting the society. If there is a clear economic plan set by our leaders now, there will be less worries for the future.
February 17th, 2009 at 8:26 pmHow did they get this data? or is it speculation? The Census Bureau has only published it’s data until 2007. This graph also implies a rise in unemployment in 2007. The Census Bureau reports a decrease of unemployment during 2007. The reliability of this report is questionable.
February 20th, 2009 at 2:38 pm