federal government should enact a program of universal health care to better protect and serve all of its citizens. The uninsured constitute a larger and more diverse segment of our population than most people realize.
The 2003 National Health Interview Survey showed that 42.3 million Americans (14.8%) were uninsured at the time of the survey.
Most of the uninsured are not those living in poverty
The Kaiser Family Foundation Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured found that over 80% of uninsured come from working families.
2001 Census Bureau data showed that the largest increase in uninsured from 2000 to 2001 was among people who had incomes of $75,000 or more.
Data from the Health Insurance Association of America shows that the uninsured population continues to grow and could reach 61 million by 2009.
Lack of insurance leads to serious problems for those without it.
The Institute of Medicine estimates that 18,000 American die prematurely each year because they are uninsured.
According to Dr. W Light, a professor of health care policy and an expert on health care, 40% of bankruptcies in the US are the result of medical bills.universal health care program similar to the setup of the school system should be implemented by the federal government and would create unforeseen positive effects.Because one of the most voiced concerns about universal health care is a decline in quality of care, a system loosely modeled after the American school system should be put into effect.Because universal health care is such a large scale proposal, only the federal government has the adequate resources to implement such a large plan and guarantee equivalent services to all Americans.The implementation of universal health care would be beneficial to our citizens and system of care in less obvious ways.
According to Dr. Mohammad Akhter of the American Journal of Public Health, if uninsured individuals obtained health insurance, their mortality rates would be reduced by 10-15%, their educational attainment would increase, and their annual earnings would rise by 10-30%. While the claim is made that universal health care would cause problems of inefficiency, this claim is not necessarily true.
In his article in the American Journal of Public Health, Lawrence
