Why 9-9-09 for Law and 10-10-10 for Cards?

The Need for Urgency

CRISIS CONFIRMED in reports published in first 6 months of 2008

• Increase in unnecessary deaths regarding preventable diseases
  • U.S. was 15th out of 19 countries
  • U.S. now 19th out of 19 countries
  • At least 75,000 deaths per year; 205 per day
    • … or is it 101,000 deaths per year? See Real People and pick what number you wish to keep in mind or reference or report … or refer people to the web page (let me know if its presentation can be improved)
  • U.S. uninsured
    • Had 18,000 deaths per year
    • Now 22,000 deaths per year (likely a subset of the 75,000)
  • See Real People for a full explanation of these numbers with the sources of the information
  • Conclusion: people you see or know who have a preventable disease involving years of pain and suffering, then death, may be part of this huge statistic of poor U.S. health care performance
• Increased number of people at risk
  • An amazingly high 42% now for the combination of the number of persons under age 65 who are uninsured or undersinsured.
  • Thus, the reality of possible financial ruin had already started to hit the middle and upper class, but the possibility for them is higher than ever
  • The “underinsured” are individuals who have insurance but they are dangerously close to being in financial stress or disaster if they need any significant amount of medical care.
  • ” … a sharp increase in the number of underinsured people. Based on indicators of cost exposure relative to income, as of 2007 an estimated twenty-five million insured people ages 19-64 were underinsured – a 60 percent increase (in the underinsured) since 2003. The rate of increase was steepest among those with incomes above 200 percent of poverty, where underinsurance rates nearly tripled (for persons in higher income brackets). In total, 42 percent of U.S. adults were underinsured or uninsured. The underinsured report high levels of access problems and financial stress. … ” – the Abstract of the Health Affairs article listed below in References. Bolding was added.

Additional Reasons to Consider

People’s Input: single-payer

• Four years is long enough to wait after the peoples’ input in 2006 that single-payer is needed
  • “Citizens Health Care Working Group”
    • Established by the U.S. Congress to get input
    • The report to the U.S. Congress was provided in September 2006

U.S. Government Goal of Healthy People 2010

• Government’s goal of full coverage by 2010.
  • “Healthy People 2010” goals established November 1999
  • Objective 1-1: 100% for “the proportion of persons with health insurance.”

Healthcare-Now! Organizational Goal of 2009

• Voice greeting when one calls Healthcare-Now!:
  • “You have reached Healthcare-Now!, the national organization to create a publicly-funded, single-payer, national health care system in the United States by 2009.”

American Nurses Association Organizational Goal of 2010

• Announcement titled “ANA Unveils Renewed Push for Systemic, Affordable Health Care Reform” in June 2005
  • “In addition to promoting ANA’s Health Care Agenda - 2005, the association will act on a resolution on the topic at its upcoming House of Delegates (HOD) meeting. The resolution proposes that ANA use its leadership role in the nursing profession to drive changes in the health care industry by 2007, and set minimum goals for reform that … ensure that all United States citizens and legal residents have health insurance coverage by 2010.”

Medicare Implementation Took One Year Without Computers

We Need Health Care for All!

Further reading:

• Healthy People 2010 Power Point presentation: see slide 31 of 39. 11-30-1999
• Healthy People 2010: 1 Access to Quality Health Services. See Objective 1-1, P. 13.
• Overwhelming Support for a national health program was reported by the U.S. Congress’ Citizens’ Health Care Working Group in September 2006
• The United States’ current single-payer national health insurance for seniors, Medicare, was enacted by law in 1965, implemented in 1966 and fully in use by 1967 without the help of today’s extensive network of powerful computer systems.

References

Number of Uninsured and Underinsured

• “How Many Are Underinsured? Trends Among U.S. Adults, 2003 and 2007” – June 2008 report in Health Affairs magazine 27, no. 4 (2008).

Government Goal via “Healthy People 2010”

• Access to Quality Health Services
  • Objective 1-1. Persons with health insurance
    • Increase the proportion of persons with health insurance.
    • Target: 100 percent.
    • Baseline: 83 percent of persons under age 65 years were covered by health insurance in 1997 (age adjusted to the year 2000 standard population).
    • Target setting method: Total coverage.
    • Data source : National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), CDC, NCHS.