|
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Aug. 29, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- U.S. HEALTH CARE CRIME:
LACK OF INSURANCE KILLS 18,000 PER
YEAR
By Sharon Eolis, R.N.
A study by the Institute of Medicine released in
May
concluded that about 18,000 people in the U.S. die prematurely each year due to lack of health coverage. Many must wait too long to get health care. Others die of preventable causes because they have no access to vaccinations, prenatal care, cancer-screening tests or well- baby care. The IOM is a mainstream group affiliated with the
National
Academy of Science. The soaring cost of health care is creating a
life-
threatening crisis for poor and working people in the U.S. According to federal government statistics, over 40 million people have no health insurance. Two million joined the uninsured in the past year. These numbers exclude the millions of undocumented workers and their families residing in the U.S. who lack access to medical care. Even those with some kind of health coverage aren't
out of
the woods. On Aug. 11 the New York Times ran a comprehensive article covering the problems with the health-care structure in the U.S. This article was the source for much of the information presented here. In 2000, some 93 percent of workers insured through
the
workplace were in managed-care plans, up from 27 percent in 1988. This number included two-thirds of the people under age 65. Since 1988, more companies have increased employee
co-
payments and deductibles. Employers blame high health-care costs and benefit cuts on the insurance companies. The managed care companies blame the higher costs on patients who demand quality high-tech health care. Higher costs have forced many workers to drop out
of their
health-care plans entirely. Self-employed workers also pay higher fees. All this contributed to increasing the uninsured population. STRUGGLING FOR COVERAGE
Some examples illustrate just how hard it is for
workers to
cope with the health-care system. The construction company that hired Francisco Guillen in San Rafael, Calif., pays a large portion of health-care insurance costs only for employees and their children. Thus it cost Guillen $138 per year to insure his four children. But to insure his wife Adela Velasquez, who works
elsewhere
as an uninsured part-time housekeeper, would cost an additional $3,250 per year. When Valasquez needed emergency hernia surgery, she could only get it from a surgeon working for a charity. To hold his insurance premium to $266 monthly, a
self-
employed poultry farmer in Texas has a $15,000 deductible. This leaves him uninsured except for catastrophic illnesses. On Long Island, N.Y., one family couldn't pay the
premium
increase demanded by their insurance company. It went from $550 to $750 monthly. To insure their three children, the family found the federally subsidized children's health insurance program (CHIP). This program is usually available to families with an income less than twice the poverty level, or about $36,000 per year in the case described above. The two parents still had to pay $514 per month to insure themselves. Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA,
says that
in 42 states a person without children can be penniless and still not qualify for federally subsidized health coverage. Pollack said eligibility should be based on income, not family status. The managed-care companies have only one goal: high
profits.
When health care costs spiraled, insurance firms cut benefits and quality of care. These firms often refuse to pay for tests like CT and MRI scans or for expensive medicines. Lack of coverage and denial of tests have led to
complications and death for many patients. There are many malpractice cases pending against managed care companies for refusing services. BIG ISSUE FOR LABOR
According to Denise Mitchell, director of
communications for
the AFL-CIO, "In the last six to nine months, health care has become the biggest issue in collective bargaining." In Spring 2002 there were two major local strikes
where the
main issue was the companies' attempts to cut health benefits or increase workers' premiums: at the Hershey Chocolate Company in Pennsylvania and Group Health, Inc. in New York state. On a larger scale, in the past decade retired
miners had to
fight an attempt to remove them from the health-care rolls and communication workers fought against increased employee premiums. In the 1990s, insurance companies competed to
enroll seniors
in plans that supplemented Medicare, thinking this would provide steady profits. Instead, rising health-care costs-- especially costs of prescription drugs--forced losses on these companies. They moved rapidly to drop the plans, leaving the seniors, who often have complex and expensive needs, swinging in the breeze. Federal and state governments have provided
something of a
safety net for children, seniors and the disabled. But in the present recession, with diminished state and federal revenues and reactionary administrations in office, the government has cut other health and human services to the bone. PART OF THE CLASS STRUGGLE
The fight for adequate health care for all is part
of the
class struggle. In revolutionary countries like Cuba--even under a 40-year U.S. blockade--society has been able to provide universal free health care that is both superior and more egalitarian than in all the capitalist countries of the Third World. Cuba, a poor country, provides better care than
what's
provided to much of the U.S. population, especially communities of color, where infant mortality rates are sometimes double those in Cuba. The IOM report states that national health
insurance would
help eliminate inequality of care for "racial and ethnic minority groups" in the U.S. Even other industrialized capitalist powers like
Japan and
Western Europe provide close to universal health care, with variations in quality and accessibility to richer and poorer people. The big European monopolies have placed these plans
under
attack since the defeat of the Soviet Union and the collapse of socialism in Eastern Europe. The socialist countries had provided free medical care to all, and set a standard that workers fought for in the West. But even today, the U.S. is the only imperialist
country
with a completely inadequate, indeed, a non-existent national health-care program. The early Clinton administration raised the need
for a
national health-care plan, but made so many compromises with the insurance companies that its final plan lost all mass support and was crushed by the medical-industrial complex-- the pharmaceutical companies, managed-care conglomerates, private hospitals and American Medical Association. The IOM report is available online at
http://bob.nap.edu/books/0309083435/html/. - END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is
permitted to
copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]. Subscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED]. Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED]. Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) |
