U.S. Uninsured, 45 million, Government Says

[cal04]

Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) -- The number of uninsured Americans climbed to a record last year, crowding hospital emergency rooms and thrusting the issue into the presidential race, a government report showed.

The Census Bureau said 45 million Americans lacked health- care coverage in 2003, or almost one in six. In 2002, the total was 43.6 million. The previous high was 44.3 million in 1998.

Insurance premiums rose 14 percent last year, six times the rate of inflation, according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, who is making medical insurance a campaign issue, said Tuesday that the Bush administration ``neglected the crisis of health care.''

``This may be one of the sharpest and most well-defined issues that distinguishes these two candidates in this election,'' said Henry Aaron, a senior fellow in the economic studies program at the Brookings Institution, a Washington policy research group.

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aoEuMRyykP.E&refer=home

[gratuitous]

1. Lucky duckies all!

They never have to wait for a referral from their primary physician or fill out a series of mind-numbing forms. They just go right in to the ER, and if they don't bleed to death on the floor, they get to see a doctor right away.

Boy, uninsured sure is the way to go!

[UpInArms]

2. BFD!

didn't you read the latest skewed poll numbers!

*Co is leading!

Whee! We can all be economically depressed and dead and this POS is revered for his "unchanged" stance!

:puke:

:nuke:

:argh:

[kegler14]

3. The news itself is bad enough..

but I also heard on NPR this morning that this report is usually released in late September. It's not too hard to imagine why the Bushees ordered it released sooner.

richard

[loftycity]

4. Double the figure with all the lay-offs.. etc.

This is a low ball figure--just like the unemployment figures.
I'd say it is 1 out of 3 people do not have health insurance.
The repukes slow holocaust of the American people. PNAC wants to get the population down...great way to do it.

[kegler14]

5. And what's even worse...

The Census Bureau in the same report released the fact that more than 1 million more peoeple slid into poverty. This figure is also usually released in late September. AND these two figures -- the poverty number and the number of uninsured -- are usually released in separate reports, not in one. So Bush has had both figures put into one report AND released a month early, all in the hopes people will forget about them by the time they go to vote. Kerry needs to hammer these numbers for the rest of the campaign.

[shadu]

6. those are good points

[peacetalksforall]

7. Truman - this is a paragraph from the dust jacket of a book about

his health care fight -
"I have had some bitter diappointments as President," Harry Truman reflected after leaving office, "but the one that has troubled me most, in a personal way, has been the failure to defeat organized opposition to a national compulsory health-insurance program." This book examines Truman's quest for national health insurance in light of the ongoing debate on the subject in this century. It reveals why Truman was the first president to advotate government-financed health care and why he repeadedly took the idea to Congress, despite insurmountable political obstacles."

Harry S. Truman Versus the Medical Lobby
The Genesis of Medicare
Monte M. Poen
University of Missouri Press 1979

So the medical lobby and our no-help-stingy lobby-loving-paid off leaders have had a half century of success.

Why do the leaders of a country want to screw their citizens - why are there so few exceptions - why is a leader who tries (a la Chavez) labeled a commie-socialist - why are the leaders anti-christ about helping and caring. ?????????????????

[havocmom]

8. With legislation constantly favoring insurance companies & HMOs,

even people who have insurance are finding it isn't always the help it is supposed to be. Seems like more and more limits all the time.

[lovuian]

9. Now How many Iraqis have Healthcare and is that guaranteed

cause its not in America

whats wrong with this picture