HEALTHCARE/HEALTH INSURANCE

• Healthcare spending has been growing faster than US economy over past several decades and is projected by CBO to reach 6.3% of GDP in 2016. This figure, up from 4.6 in 2007, threatening to impact business, government and society as a whole. (David Walker, US Comptroller)
• On September 30, 2006, the end of the fiscal year, the US government had $32 trillion unfunded Medicare obligations of what about $8 trillion were for the Medicare prescription benefit program alone. This obligation represents over 60% of total US liabilities and unfunded commitments and the amount is growing daily. (David Walker, US Comptroller General)
• If health care spending continues on its same trajectory, the United States will reach the point—probably several decades from now—where every penny of the annual increase in gross domestic product would have to go for health care, leaving less and less money for other things like education, environmental protection, scientific research and national security.
• States are already unable to pay for other vital activities like education to meet soaring Medicaid costs. (The High Cost of Health Care, New York Times, November 25, 2007)
• The Milken Institute recently estimated that the most common chronic diseases cost the US economy more than $1 trillion annually, mostly from lost worker productivity, which could balloon to nearly $6 trillion annually by the middle of the century. (The High Cost of Health Care, New York Times, November 25, 2007)
• According to the latest U.S. Census Bureau statistics, currently 47 million people in US don’t have health insurance, while the percentage of children without insurance rose for the second consecutive year. This was an increase of 5% compared with 2005. (Boston Globe, August 29, 2007)
• Healthcare premiums have risen 6.1% this year, slower than last year’s 7.7% but still more than twice as fast as the 2.6% inflation rate and at a time when an average worker’s earnings have risen just 2.7%. Annual premium costs for the average family topped $12,100 as compared to $11,480 last year. (Kaiser Family Foundation study)
• The number of uninsured children age 18 and younger grew by 710,000 to a total of 9.4 million in 2006 and 70% of them came from families earning more than twice the federal poverty level—that’s $41,300 for a family of four. (Children Without Health Insurance Los Out on Learning in School, McClatchy Newspapers, November 18, 2007)
• About one of every eight veterans under the age of 65 is uninsured, a finding that contradicts the assumption many have that all vets qualify for free health care through the Veterans Affairs Department. (Study: More Veterans Are Uninsured, The Associated Press, October 30, 2007)