Universal health-care system is essential
Sunday, September 7, 2008 11:23 AM PDT

Sept. 7 Daily News editorial

The presidential nominees of the two major political parties have spent the past couple of weeks mostly trying to pump up their followers and tear down one another. Little speaking time has been allotted for such wonkish topics as health care. But the nation’s broken health-care system surely will loom large for whichever candidate moves into the White House on Jan. 20, 2009.

A new survey by the nonpartisan Commonwealth Fund shows that a growing number of Americans are struggling to pay medical bills and accumulating medical debt at an increasing rate, according to Washington Post writer Sopan Joshi. The survey found that two-thirds of the working-age population was uninsured, underinsured, reported a medical bill problem or did not get needed health care because of cost in 2007. Sixty-one percent of those reporting problems with medical bills and medical debt were insured at the time they required medical care.

Sara Collins, an assistant vice president of the Commonwealth Fund, told Joshi that, “Health-care costs are climbing much more rapidly than incomes or the growth in the overall economy. What is notable is how these problems are spreading up the income scale.” The survey found that four in 10 moderate-income families, those earning from $20,000 to $40,000 annually, were without medical insurance in 2007, up from 28 percent the previous year. Eighteen percent of families earning from $40,000 to $60,000 were uninsured in 2007, compared to 13 percent in 2006.

These are trends that no elected official can ignore. The rising cost of health care is battering families and the national economy, alike. It’s squeezing employers large and small. Some analysts say double-digit increases in employer-sponsored health insurance premiums are adversely affecting hiring decisions and encouraging the outsourcing of jobs overseas. There is no relief in sight. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services projects that health-care costs will increase by almost 7 percent annually over the next decade.

Restraining health-care costs is going to require a major, top-to-bottom push for comprehensive health-cafe reform. Piece-meal reforms won’t do. Many leaders in business and industry already have come to this realization. The National Coalition on Health Care, a group that includes representatives of business, industry, labor and civic organizations, has called for what amounts to a universal health-care system.

The Commonwealth Fund has joined that call, arguing in its latest study that universal health-care insurance is essential to improving health care in the nation. Building a consensus on how best to provide universal care will be a challenge, given the many competing interests. But it’s a challenge members of the next Congress can ill-afford to ignore.