....well guess what...? As I predicted, it's beginning to creep upward
among the higher income earners. Feel the squeeze yet? Don't worry,
it's coming. Soon the effects of our overloaded health care system
will come to a hospital or doctor's office near you. Whether it's
higher costs, longer waits, poorer quality care (most likely all
three), we will not escape it. Remember that the next time you or a
loved one is sitting in a trauma center waiting for an ER Physician.
Better yet, wait till there is bio terror attack in this country and
people running around with Ebola in densely populated areas and you had
the misfortune of being at the wrong place at the wrong time...there
won't be much BC&BS, hospitals, and the almighty dollar can do for you.
One way or the other, the turkey comes home to roost.
But....let's not worry about it; problems like this in America
magically fix themselves and go away; just press the "easy button",
right?
Poverty and poor health are intertwined, experts say
POSTED: 4:22 p.m. EDT, September 1, 2006
Poverty in the United States increased 20 percent between 2000 and
2004, census numbers show. And although the trend stalled in 2005,
researchers worry poverty will have profound effects on public health
in this country.
Poverty and its effects are a chief issue for former President Bill
Clinton's Global Initiative. Clinton is bringing together a
non-partisan group of world leaders on September 20 in New York to try
to match innovative problem-solving with resources.
"More possibility for growth and more possibility for prosperity for
Americans is a very inexpensive thing to do, if you do it well," the
former president said.
Risk all around
New research indicates that it's not just the poor who are getting
poorer. An analysis of poverty rates and health published in the
September issue of The American Journal of Preventive Medicine found
that people living in extreme poverty tend to have more chronic
illnesses, more frequent and severe disease complications and make
greater demands on the health care system.
"When we talk about poverty, there is the tendency to feel it affects a
small percentage of the population and the rest of us are doing
better," said Steven Woolf, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth
University and author of the study. But in this situation, he said,
"we're all doing a little bit worse."
A Census Bureau report released Tuesday said that U.S. salaries across
the board increased minimally, about $500 a year between 2004 and 2005.
It's also the first year that the poverty rate has not worsened since
before President Bush took office.
The modest salary increase is not enough to counter what Woolf's study
calls a "sinkhole effect" on income, a disparity shifting middle- and
upper-class families closer to the poverty level.
Fewer people can claim "poverty doesn't affect me" as more individuals
face layoffs and cutbacks, and are unable to afford health insurance,
Woolf said. According to the National Coalition on Health Care, the
average family pays about $2,700 a year for health insurance, not
including out-of-pocket expenses for co-payments and prescription
drugs. That number is expected to rise to $3,200 by the end of 2006.
As financially strapped families struggle to cover basic needs such as
food, shelter and the increasing cost of energy, health insurance often
takes a back seat on the list of priorities. A National Health Survey
conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found
more than 40 million people of all ages went without insurance at some
point in 2005.
More than half remained uninsured specifically because they simply
couldn't afford it, the CDC said. Research consistently highlights the
negative link between reduced income and worsening health -- as
salaries drop, individuals tend to be more stressed, and generally lead
less-healthy lifestyles.
"These people are going to develop diseases at a higher rate and the
health care system is going to feel the brunt of it," Woolf said.
Poverty's impact is felt most by the nation's children. Children under
the age of 5 are more likely to live in extreme poverty. Uninsured
children are at greater risk of experiencing health problems such as
obesity, heart disease and asthma that continue to affect them later in
adulthood. The prevalence of these illnesses does not bode well for
future generations, Woolf said.
"If we amplify the scale by the results of poverty left to run loose,
the economic consequence to everybody, to all Americans and all
taxpayers, will be substantial," Woolf said. The prevailing thought is
that the problem needs to be addressed, and quickly, he said.
By making the public more aware of the direction the economy is taking,
researchers say they hope policies can be put into place that will keep
Americans from living under such difficult conditions in the wealthiest
country in the world
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