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The Business of Health Care Report
Today, our discussion will focus on the plight of the nation’s uninsured.
Hard-working Americans are
losing their health care coverage. In 2002, the number of people living without health
coverage increased by more than 2 million – the largest one-year increase in a decade.
Today, there are 43.6 million Americans, including 8.5 million children, who have no
health care coverage. In Texas alone, 5.5 million adults and children are uninsured,
the most of any state in the U.S. Being uninsured means going without needed care. It means minor illnesses become major ones because care is delayed. And it means one significant medical expense can wipe out a family’s bank account. Fewer and fewer small businesses can afford to provide coverage for their employees, and those that
do provide coverage are struggling to continue offering it. Despite the hard work of
many, we know that the problem of the uninsured is growing worse, not better. That is
why a diverse group of national organizations will come together May 10-16 for “Cover
the Uninsured Week 2004,” sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and other
national organizations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Hospoital
Hospital Association and the AFL-CIO. What do we hope to achieve? We want to raise public awareness about who the uninsured are and the realities they face. And we want others around the country to understand that more than 80 percent of the uninsured are from working families. Most importantly, though, we want to remind Congress that it is within
its grasp to remove barriers to health care coverage. Rising insurance premiums continue to undermine the ability of individuals, businesses and state and federal governments to purchase health care coverage. Reversing this trend, elevating this issue on national and local policy agendas and educating Americans about the problem are the goals of “Cover the Uninsured Week.” We can let millions of
Americans live without health coverage, or we can do something about it. For Texas Health Resources
and its family of hospitals - Harris Methodist Hospitals, Presbyterian
Healthcare System and Arlington Memorial Hospital - I'm CEO
Doug Hawthorne
with "The Business of Health Care Report" on NewsRadio 1080 KRLD.
©
2004 Texas Health Resources |
I'm Doug Hawthorne, President and CEO of Texas Health Resources, with
"The Business of Health Care Report" on 