Scary Stuff

With congressional elections less than 2 months away there seems to be a concerted campaign to instill fear in us of the Islamic fascists.

While I agree that we are in a struggle that could determine the course of history, there are other issues that the politicians aren’t talking about. It’s really scary stuff, too … stuff that endangers the very survival of America as an economic powerhouse, a place where you’d want your kids and grandkids to grow up.

We, the citizens of the United States of America, are being sold out by a coalition of our own elected representatives and the special interests who fund their campaigns.

In this and future entries in this blog I’d like to reveal some of this scary stuff to you, stuff that doesn’t always make it into the national media or the political debate.

Today’s scary stuff comes from healthcare …

The percentage of people with employment-based health insurance has dropped from 70 percent in 1987 to 59.8 percent in 2004.

It is estimated that we have spent as a nation nearly 10 trillion dollars on health care since 2000, but this expenditure has not resulted in demonstrably better quality of care or better patient satisfaction compared to other nations.

Health care spending reached $1.9 trillion in 2004 - about 4.3 times the amount spent on national defense.

In 2005, employer health insurance premiums increased by 9.2 percent - nearly three times the rate of inflation.

The annual premium for an employer health plan covering a family of four averaged nearly $11,000.

The average employee contribution to company-provided health insurance has increased more than 143 percent since 2000.

Average out-of-pocket costs for co-payments, such as for prescriptions, deductibles and coinsurance for doctor visits, rose 115 percent since 2000.

National surveys consistently show that the primary reason people are uninsured is because health coverage is too expensive.

It is estimated that 600,000 patients have died in hospitals due to medical errors since 2000.

Unnecessary medical accidents, errors and poor quality are the nation's third leading cause of death, just behind cancer and heart disease.

The Institute of Medicine estimates that nearly 100,000 patients die in hospitals each year due to medical errors. This is three times the number of people who die on the highways.

About 18,000 unnecessary deaths occur each year due to lack of health insurance

It is estimated that 77 million Americans over the age of 19 have difficulty paying medical bills, have accrued medical debt, or both.

The above facts were gleaned from the National Coalition on Healthcare (www.nchc.org).

These are not issues you are hearing about in the national election debate. But they are problems that could affect any one of us if our luck turns sour.

More scary stuff in future entries …

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