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Guest Commentary January 25, 2002
40 Million Uninsured Americans Is a "Moral Outrage"
The Honorable Gordon Smith
Health insurance is something about which we should all be concerned. Living without health insurance can result in bankruptcy, unnecessary delays in treatment, and, in some tragic circumstances, even death itself. We need to be concerned about it, not just because we all may at some point in our lives become uninsured. We need to be concerned about the uninsured because it is a moral outrage that so many Americans have no health coverage even as they live and work in the wealthiest nation on Earth.
We have heard the statistics: Over 40 million Americans do not have health insurance. We have heard the number so many times that it seems to have lost its impact, in this place at least. Let's look at the number more closely: 40 million Americans is one in six people in our country who do not qualify for Medicare. That number includes citizens from every conceivable walk of life: children, pregnant women, parents, single adults, full-time workers, self-employed individuals, and students. The 40 million people include those who have lost their jobs as the economy has worsened. It includes people who have worked hard for small companies that cannot afford to offer health benefits to employees. It includes people who work for companies that offer health benefits, but who cannot afford their share of the premium. Most Americans would be surprised to know more than 80 percent of all uninsured children and adults live in families who have at least one adult working.
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This week the country celebrated the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. More than 30 years after his death, it seems incredible that the racial disparity in health care is still so evident. More than any other group, the people who are living without health insurance in the United States are Hispanic and African American. Thirty-two percent of all Hispanics in this country had no health insurance coverage last year; the number is even worse for low-income Hispanics, 43 percent of whom live without insurance. This situation should no longer be tolerated.
As the Senate convenes for the second session of the 107th Congress, there has never been a better time to address the issues of the uninsured. Americans are losing their jobs as the recession continues, without the benefit of any economic stimulus legislation from this Congress.
In addition, the brief era of stability in health insurance premiums seem to have ended. In 2001, the average cost of employer-sponsored health insurance coverage rose 11 percent. Those who work in small firms saw increases substantially higher than that.
There can be no doubt what will happen this year. It has already begun. Through no fault of their own, many employers will have to raise copayments and premiums, while reducing benefits, if they are able to continue to offer insurance to their employees at all. The bottom line is that more people than ever will lose their health insurance.
These numbers are truly startling. But behind every one of those, every single case of those 40 million people, there is an American face and a human story.
As I travel around Oregon visiting community health centers, I meet more and more people who live without health insurance. I hear their stories. There are many ways we can help shrink that gap between the insured and the uninsured. We should pursue that goal with the policy we begin formulating in the Budget Committee.
While the stories of all of the people I meet are different, they are, in most cases, quite tragic, and the circumstances that have brought them to these places are often similar. The loss of a job. An increase in insurance premiums. A serious illness. These are unavoidable circumstances that could happen to any American.
While I understand the looming budget deficit this year will make new initiatives difficult, the current economic climate is all the more reason to focus attention and resources on covering the uninsured this year. In the immortal word of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: "The time is always right to do what is right."
Gordon Smith is a U.S. Senator (R-Oregon). The above column has been adapted from a speech Sen. Smith delivered on the floor of the Senate, January 23, 2002. To contact him, Click Here.
The above column has been distributed by PoliticsOL.com.
