Healthcare Reform

By Florice Orea Hoffman

Nearly 48 million Americans are uninsured. The primary reason people are uninsured is that insurance is too expensive. Health insurance premuims pass on the cost of the uninsured to the insured. It is time to solve our healthcare crisis.

American Corporations are increasingly shifting the health care costs to employees. Now America's workers struggle to pay higher premiums, deductibles and co-payments--if they can afford such coverage at all.

Moreover, health insurance does not prevent the enormous healthcare costs Americans face and the risk of financial ruin. Millions of the insured are spending their life savings on healthcare. 51 million insured Americans spent 10% of their income on healthcare; 10.7 million insured American spent 25% of their income on healthcare; and 6.8 million Americans spent more than 30% of their income on healthcare. Health care costs are rising at five times the rate of inflation.

The only solution to our national healthcare crisis is universal healthcare coverage for all Americans. Sources include http://www.familiesusa.org; http://www,nchc.org;