Colorado Needs Health Care Reform
July 09, 2009
Reprinted from the 50 State Report released by the Center for American Progress, I am re-printing below some relevant numbers for Colorado.
Colorado Needs Health Care Reform
Colorado citizens are losing health care every day. In Colorado, 100 people are losing their health care every day during this economic crisis. Nationally, 14,000 people are losing their health insurance every day. [Center for American Progress Action Fund, 3/5/09]
Colorado has seen a 14 percent increase in the number of uninsured since 2007. [Center for American Progress, 5/4/09]
Our broken health care system is hurting the Colorado economy. The Colorado economy loses between $2.1 billion and $4.19 billion every year due to lost productivity stemming from the uninsured. And we are losing between $124 billion and $248 billion nationwide every year. [Center for American Progress, 5/29/09]
The average family premium in Colorado costs $1,100 more because our broken health care system fails to cover everyone. Nationally, the average family premium costs $1,100 more. [Center for American Progress, 3/24/09]
Colorado consumers have little choice in health care. Wellpoint Inc. holds 29 percent of the market. They control 53 percent of the market together with one other company, UnitedHealth Group Inc. [Center for American Progress, 6/16/09]
Colorado doctors support health care reform. Dr. Mark Earnest of Denver, CO says, "In the current system, what frustrates me the most is inequities in care and coverage. The tremendous amount of resources spent on denying care rather than providing it and improving it. The disproportionate voice of Pharma and the insurance industry over the needs of individuals. The perverse incentives for providing more of what's expensive and ineffective over primary and preventive care." [Doctors for America, Voices of Physicians, http://www.voicesofphysicians.org/]
Reforming our health care system is key to economic recovery. Half of all people filing for home foreclosure nationwide in 2008 cited medical problems as a cause. [Christopher T. Robertson, Richard Egelhof, and Michael Hoke, "Get Sick, Get Out: The Medical Causes of Home Foreclosures," Health Matrix 18 (2008): 65-105.]
Health care costs for small businesses have grown by 30 percent since 2000, and our manufacturers spend more per hour on health care than manufacturers in Canada, Japan, and the United Kingdom combined. [RAND, "Economic Burden of Health Insurance Increasing for Small Employers Providing Health Insurance," 4/4/08]
Health system modernization can save $600 billion over 10 years. [Center for American Progress Action Fund, 5/11/09]
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