Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

Tide of Health Care, Pt.5 – Spending acceleration out-of-control.

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Even though it appears that early health insurance/care reform right now would be a major hurdle, many experts agree that we may need results sooner than later. The statistics at this time are very bleak. Right now we have:

• · 45 million Americans with no health insurance at all.
•  · 25 million more have Americans with inadequate health insurance plans. These people carry unacceptable coverage because of having only minimal coverage. They are in grave danger of bankruptcy or even death. The Commonwealth Fund finds many of them to be in worse shape then those who carry no health insurance at all.
•  · 42% of the working adults (those under age 65) are already in one of these two categories. This condition has been steadily worsening and is, in fact, up from only 33% back in 2003.

Health insurance/costs are out of control and right now represent around 16% of our nation’s GDP (gross domestic product). Things are so bad that the Congressional Budget Office projects that these costs will continue to rise and will reach a quarter of our GDP by the year 2025.

Former Congressional Budget Office Director, Alice Rivlin, PhD; states that: "We are not going to reduce health care spending. The best we can do is reduce the rate of health care spending growth.” Ms. Rivlin is now a scholar with the Brookings Institution. She believes that controlling this growth needs to be the top agenda for health insurance/care reform.

As more and more Americans lose their jobs, loss of health insurance is sure to follow. The problem could quickly increase beyond projections. Doing nothing isn’t an option anymore, Ms. Rivlin states. The cost would be much too great. Karen Davis concurs and adds that, even employers won’t be able to continue offering health insurance benefits, as many are already dropping out at an alarming rate. No one, not even the government, can sustain it and it will soon collapse altogether.

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