Did you see USAToday on Wednesday (June 20, 2007)?
A front page story on the mounting numbers of uninsured Americans reported that Texas leads the nation with right at 25% of us having no health coverage at all.
Minnesota ranked 50th with a bit over 8% uninsured. The national average comes in at just over 15%.
Texas: 25%! That is 1 out of every 4 people you see on the street, right? Maybe not. Depends on where you live. But, it is one of every four Texans--millions are children.
When you factor in the costs of treatment in emergency rooms, lost productivity at work and school due to untreated illnesses and the loss of years of life, a well-documented fact among those who study such matters, you face a public health and economic crisis of the first order.
Our state legislature just adjourned until 2009.
While our leaders did restore some funding and applied reforms to our Children's Health Insurance Program, they obviously didn't do nearly enough.
How long will it be before we wake up to the cost, the reality and the overwhelming need for a different sort of leadership and vision for our state.
And, incidentally, I wonder which state has more churches today per capita, Minnesota or Texas? I think I know. What does this mean? How many people of faith who are also insured really care about this issue?
Just wondering.
3 comments:
Today my mom finally went to the doctor for her high blood pressure. The cost of her medication with medicare $57.95. She would not be able to get it if I did not buy it for her, yet my husband and I pay $800 per month for our medical insurance. Our failed system does not just affect the poor, it affects us all. Right now I have teeth that need attention, but my $800 month insurance does not include dental, so I will pass on the $2500 dental work for now. I don't know what the answer is, but it doesn't mean that I don't care about the uninsured and I do go to church. I just don't know what I can do to make a difference.
Help us to pass a national health care plan. Individually we can do little. But collectively, we can change the world.
The need and the honesty will get us to the place we need to be--a national, single payer system with Rx benefits negotiated by a government that cares more about all of its people. We must form a movement to change the current system. It will take everyone.
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