The Facts
Quality health care that once seemed reliable is quickly being priced out of reach for millions of hardworking, taxpaying Americans. The health care crisis affects us all regardless of age, race or employment.
Nearly 45 million Americans are uninsured. That's over 15 percent of the population.
And that number doesn't even scratch the surface of the number of Americans who are underinsured in this country.
Here are the facts:
Health Care Costs Are Skyrocketing
Health care cost increases are easily outpacing wages. These rising costs make it difficult for small businesses to provide basic coverage, and corporations are shifting the growing burden directly to their employees, leaving many Americans without affordable coverage.
- In the last year, wages have increased 4 percent, while insurance premiums increased 15 percent.
- By 2006, the cost of a family premium is expected to reach $14,500 a year.
Nearly 45 Million Americans Have No Health Care
- Every minute, nearly 5 people lose their health insurance in the U.S.
- More than 74 million people went without coverage for part of the last two years. This equates to every man, woman and child in California, Texas, and New York.
- 74 percent of those without insurance come from working families.
- 9 million children in America have no health care.
The Crisis Affects Everyone
The scope of the health care crisis is reaching record proportions and touches the lives of Americans from all backgrounds, regardless of race, ethnicity, income, education, employment, or age.
- 32 percent of Hispanics living in the U.S. are uninsured. Ten of the 13 million uninsured Hispanics are in working families.
- 20 percent of Black Americans and 18 percent of Asians are uninsured, compared with 11 percent of whites.
- The number of people earning more than $75,000 a year who lost their insurance increased by 28 percent in the last year.
- The number of people with college degrees who lost their insurance increased by 29 percent last year.
- Close to 1 million of those who lost their health insurance this year have a full-time job.
- 13 percent of people aged 55-64, or 5.2 million people, were uninsured in 2000.
- One in ten married women aged 50 to 64 becomes uninsured when their husbands turn 65 and retire.
Small Businesses and the Self-Employed Can't Afford Health Care
More than 25 million Americans own a small business. But since small businesses and the self-employed aren't able to purchase insurance as cheaply as large corporations, rising health costs are making it increasingly difficult for them to afford basic health coverage for their employees and their families.
- Less than half of small businesses offer health insurance.
- Workers in small firms are three times as likely to be uninsured as workers in large firms.